


Summer Camp Secrets

by planetundersiege



Category: Homestuck
Genre: "Forgot" swim clothes, A real lot of swimming, AU, Alternate Universe, Avoiding Swim, Betas+Karkat becomes besties, Bisexual Characters, Bisexual John, Blushing, Building up courage for stuff, Bullies, CAH, Can be OOC, Cards Against Humanity, Dave's rapping is lit, FTM Dave Strider, Fights, Gay Character, Gay Dave, Getting to know peeps, Hammocks, Homophobia, Hot Weather, Implied JadeKat, Jade is an amazing artist, John is a cinnamon roll, John really liking pancakes, Kisses, LGBT+, Lesbian Characters, Lots of blushing, M/M, MTF Jade Harley, Memories, Mention of Sburb, Naive John, Pace shifts from slow to speedy, Periods, Pranks, Really nice John, Secret Lake, Shy crushes, Some small Rosemary on the side, Summer, Summer Camp, Sunny Days, Swearing, Teen Romance, Teen pranks, Texas, The romance will get a major development from now on okay, There will be a cat indirectly involved, Too pure for this world, Trans Character, Trans Jade Harley, Truth or Dare, Weird Jokes, Weird pacing, and Dave is secretly a shy bean, anixiety, camp activities, injuries, johndave - Freeform, like an actual cat, lots of references, mention of New York, nice bro, not nepeta, rosemary, teen life, unsafe binding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 16:38:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 51
Words: 68,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8497549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetundersiege/pseuds/planetundersiege
Summary: Dave Strider is spending four weeks at a summer camp that he know is gonna suck. On the first day he meets John Egbert and maybe the summer will suck a little less. Now he just have to keep the fact that he's trans a secret.[Moved from fanfiction.net to this site]





	1. Camp Haven

Chapter 1: Camp Haven

Dave Strider was a not so ordinary boy living in the state of Texas. With interests for rap music, turntables and video games he sounded pretty normal to most. If you knew him and knew he also liked dead things, being ironic as hell, awful horror movies and always wearing a pair of shades he sounded just a little odd, but that was still not how odd he was. He had a well kept secret only his bro knew about. 

Dave was his real name, it has been since he was four and it felt the realest to him, but apperantly his birth certificate had other plans and on it another, horrible and feminine name stood. Oh how he hated his dead name and how it haunted him, he couldn’t wait for the day he could get it changed so he could really be Dave, both legally and mentally. Well to keep it simple, Dave Strider was a trans boy and had know since he was four year old.  
Being trans didn’t bother him at all, he knew he was completely normal exactly like all the cis dudes, it was how the looked down on trans people that bothered him. Even though he usually passed he still sometimes got some insults that he would not want to think about, so that made him hate public spaces with lots of people. Which was just fucking perfect because what bro just stormed into his room to say.  
“Sup lil bro, you’re going to summer camp tomorrow”

\--------

Day 1 out of 28 of Camp

“Bro you fucking suck for this you know that right?”, Dave said as he looked outside of the window of his bro’s jeep. They had been driving for two hours and they were almost there at the “glorious” Camp Haven as his bro had called it. More like Camp Hell if he was the one naming it. Of all things he wanted to do this summer a fucking summer camp was the last thing he wanted. Bro was such a douche.  
“Well sorry for wanting you to actually do something a summer for once instead of sitting inside and blasting Dr Dre while playing Overwatch for thirty hours straight over and over again”, he muttered as he turned left.  
“Since when have you actually cared? And when you start you always make it worse. Summer camp is gonna suck, what do you even do there?”.  
“Well paint some pinecones and swim or something? Figure something out”.  
“Bro you know I can’t swim together with others. Even if I swam with my binder I don’t want others to find out. We live in motherfucking deadass Texas for fucks sake. How am I gonna hide this for, how long did you say I was gonna stay? I zoned out during your long protocol yesterday”.  
Bro turned right and speed up a little “Four weeks kiddo. Get used to it because this is better than being alone by yourself while I’m away with work”  
“Oh you mean making gay smuppet porn in Jersey with some dudes you met on the street? Totally a good work excuse, ten out of ten, sounds amaaaazing”, Dave said as he put his headphones over his ears and pressed the play button on his iPod. He was greated by some songs of Watsky and quitly hummed along as he watched the nature outside of the car window. Atleast he had his music. Oh god how he hoped that he would be able to charge his iPod, he would not survive for four entire weeks without it, hell no. And after about twenty more minutes they drove into a smaller road there a forest had began to form.  
“Looking nice lil bro? We’ll be there in like 10 and we need to talk, so stop blasting that Twenty One Pilot our whatever”.  
“Why the fuck would I listen to that? I’m listening to Watsky, real motherfucking rap, I wouldn’t even listen to T.O.P ironically”, Dave said and looked slightly offended at his bro. No one could no that he liked that band, especially not bro because he would taunt him forever for liking mainstream stuff. He only listened to them when he was alone.  
“Well whatever it is, stop the music”.  
“Sure whatever”, he said as he took his headphones out and put the iPod in the front pocket of his red hoodie.  
“Okay first thing first, atleast try to behave. Or atleast behave so much she you won’t get kicked out because I can’t fly from Jersey to pick you up”, he said. “And try to make some friends, you are always alone at school. And third, since you’re as gay as me aka as gay as the sun is hot, please do not get pregnant”.  
“Of course I would not get pregnant. I would rather die than being associated with such a fucking thing as that. It’s bad enough with periods. Dudes like me ain’t supposed to have em and you know that. Plus I’m 15 so you ain’t becoming an uncle soon, of ever”, Dave said and shrugged it off. Yes it was true that he was very attracted to men and that he would get so lovesick so he couldn’t explain it, but even if he ever met the most perfect “Prince Charming” as his brother called it, he would never ever in a million years do the deed with someone.  
“Ok bro I trust you. We should be able to see the place any second, your bags are in the back. When we get there you take em and go to a supervisor and they should tell you what to do next”, Bro said.  
“Ok sure”, Dave said as a part of the camp came into view. Down the hill he saw a huge lake with canoes parked on the side. On the left side of it there were tons of cabins built in squares. A little further away there was two huge buildings, and one house maybe three times bigger than a cabin. All around the lake there were small things here and there like logs, other houses to store stuff, benches, and at the beach near the lake there were some parasols. And a huge stage and an obstacle course. He could also see some trails leading into the forest that was surrounding everything. The surroundings were actually pretty neat for his Strider standards, but he knew camp was gonna suck anyway. Who ever heard of a camp that was actually fun? Sure he hadn’t atleast.  
He then saw Bro drive into a parking lot with parents constantly dropping their kids off, so these were the ones he was gonna share hell with.  
“Okay lil bro we’re here. See you on four weeks”, Bro said as he parked the car. Dave got up, took his bags, and waved and then saw his bro start the car and drive away.  
He was alone in hell now.  
Four weeks of hell.  
“Just perfect”, he thought to himself as he walked in the same direction as most newly arrived did, to one of the big buildings, and as he came inside the doors he was greated by a tall woman with black hair who wore a purple camp tshirt with the letters “Camp Haven” written on it with a golden color, and there was a small golden house symbol beside it. He also saw that someone had drawn with a black marker on it, drawing a heart with the name “Jessie” inside of it.  
“Hello and welcome to Camp Heaven. My name is Jessie and I’m one of the leaders. I’ll assign you your cabin and after our meet and great you’ll get your shirt and a marker so you can write your name and a symbol that describes you on it so people can get a first look of you. What’s your name?”  
“Dave Strider”, he said, trying to make his voice as deep as he could without making it noticeable.  
“Okay Strider”, she said and ticked a box on the paper she was holding. It says you’re 15 so you’ll be staying in Cabin 11 with five other boys that are 15. You can go around and mingle a little, the Camp introduction will begin in thirty”, she said, and walked over to the next kid entering the building. Sure this was gonna be a ride


	2. Meeting the Egderp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote this story on fanfiction.net but decided to change to this domain. I will post once a day until I'm up at the current chapters and keep writing.

Chapter 2: Meeting the Egbert

Day 1 out of 28 of Camp

Dave walked slowly around the room, trying to not draw much attention to himself. There were maybe around 100 campers in this room and it was way to much people for the cool kid to feel comfortable. And imagine how fucking long that introduction circle would become, he groaned by just thinking about it. He didn’t do circles. Why did bro have to send him here?  
Why why why why????  
He wasn’f even in a circle yet and he already felt bad about it, it was so… unstriderly or what you called it. He had to look chill and cool, so he walked up to the first persons he saw, a guy his age having a camera around his neck and dyed blue hair and freckles that made his face odd but cool and a short girl with pale skin and wavy black hair with way to big cargo shorts on her.  
“Sup, I’m Dave”, he said and nodded.  
“Hi, I’m Al Megido and this is my cousin Aradia”. The boy said. “Nice to meet you”  
“Same”, Dave answered. “So what are we even supposed to do here?”.   
“Well I don’t care, as long as I get to dig in the ground”, Aradia said. “I love archeology and I’m gonna study to become one. And my cousin here is a photographer as you can see. And you?”.  
“Well I don’t really have any super big passion, the closest I get to one is rap. I dig rap a lot, it’s like the motherfuckimg thing that wakes me up every morning”.  
His small chat with the Megido continued for another minute until one of the leaders blew in a whistle and ordered everyone to sit down in a circle.   
“Hello everyone, my name is Mark and I hope you're all gonna have an amazing time here at camp. To get things started, me, Ashton, Miranda and Jessie are gonna go over the rules and then we will all have a small presentation to get to know each other”, the leader said.  
Dave sat down beside two kids he didn't know and concentrated on the information. If he was gonna spend four weeks at this lousy place then he could atleast know the rules so he won’t get on their bad side. Or well, the worst.  
“Okay rule number one, no bullying. If we catch any troublemakers we will send you home. Rule number two, no swimming in the lake after 9 PM without adult supervision. Rule number three, no fire without adult supervision. Rule number four, electronics are only used in cabins or on the grounds after 7 pm. And rule number five, have fun. Now let’s start with with everyone saying your name and age and a thing you like. I’ll start, my name is Mark, I’m 26 and I like football”, he said and looked to the kid to the left and so on. Dave didn’t listen to well, he ran what he was gonna say millions of times in his head. When it finally was his turn he took a deep breath, lowered his voice and said,  
“Hi, my name is Dave. I’m 15 and I like rap”, he said and the next person started to talk and he zooned out again. How much longer would this circle even take? It felt like forever.

\------

After what felt like the longest thirty minutes of his life, the presentation was over and all the campers were dismissed to explore the camp until dinner on a few hours. Dave left the building with his bags, and went closer to a group of people walking together to the cabin area. As he got closer he could hear what they were saying.  
“Well it would have been so much easier if you hasn’t lead us the wrong way last year”.  
“Well excuse me for being blind. Good idea giving the blind girl the map”.  
“Fuck off you two, like fuck off or you’re dead”  
“Everyone quite or else”. “Oh hi there”.  
One of them had turned around and greated him. She had long black hair and fake anime dog ears on her head and a pair of round big glasses.  
“Sup”.  
“I’m Jade and this is Vriska, Terezi and Karkat. We we’re from California and went to this camp last year too”, she said. Both Vriska and Terezi had dark hair and both wore glasses, black and red respectively and Karkat was short, had ginger hair and wore a turtleneck several sizes too big for him.  
“Dude why the fuck are you wearing that shirt in motherfucking Texas heat?”,  
“Because I fucking want too. Got that fuckass?”, Karkat answered and just nodded.  
“Ok chill mr small rage. I’m Dave by the way. Do know what to even do at this shitty place?”, he asked. Well since he had met some who knew what to actually expect he wanted to know how miserable his summer would get.  
“Stop being so negative. Think positive. We’re here to have fun”, Jade said and made a small jump. Why was she so hyper? “My cabin is over there, see you guys later”, she said and stormed off. And then everyone went in separate directions.

Cabin 11 was a small wooden house with bunkbeds for six people, a table in the corner, six small drawers for clothes and a huge carpet in the middle of everything. A door led to a small bathroom with a shower.   
Dave chose the lower bunk in the corner and put his bags under it, sat down, took up his iPod and played his top hits, trying to close everything out. Five other boys were in the room, talking excitedly to each other about all the things they would do? What even was so fun about a stupid summer camp? It ain’t some Percy Jackson shit, just a regular boring summer camp where lazy parents send their kids for the summer so they can have some peace and quite for once. Yes camp life was really gonna suck, he knew it.  
He checked his watch (that he owned for both ironic purposes and to actually tell the time) and saw that it was 3 pm.  
Fuck  
He put his binder on at 8 am and has been wearing it 7 hours. No way he was gonna take it off in an hour. No fucking way. He would be revealed so fucking easily without his binder, even though his chest was fairly small, you could still see things that weren’t supposed to be there when he wasn’t binding, and there was no way he was gonna let people believe he was a girl, because he wasn’t one and would never be. He would just have to deal with wearing his binder for longer periods of time and pray to some invisible almighty god that his ribs wouldn’t break or anything because Bro would kill him.  
“Well Bro doesn’t have this problem so he has no right to judge my decision right now”, he though to himself as a new song started playing on his iPod, T.O.P, his guilty pleasure no one could ever know he listened too. Well he could say he listened to it for ironic purposes but, meh. The Backyardings theme song and the American Idol 2008 soundtrack were things he listened to ironically.  
He laid there for a while, listening to a few songs just zooning out, just thinking about himself and his beats. Dude he was cool and everyone was gonna see it.  
“Excuse me, is the bunk over you taken?”, a voice said. He looked up and looked into a pair of sky blue eyes, or as well as you could look into someones eyes since he was wearing shades and the other dude wore rectangular glasses.  
“It’s up for grab if you want it, I ain’t judging”  
“Okay thanks”, he said and put his bags down. “I’m John Egbert. What’s your name?”, he said and gave a light smile, making his buck teeth visible. Yep this guy looked like a total nerd but yet seemed cool, or well cool enough.  
“Name’s Strider, Dave motherfucking Strider, from the city of Austin”.  
“You’re from this state? That explains how you can wear a hoodie in this weather, how do you southerners even do it? I’m from New York”.  
“So the Big Apple huh? How come you came to deadass Texas of all places? Your fam wanted a break?”.  
“Not really. I asked my dad to go to a summer camp so that I could try to make some friends, and my cousin Jake went to this camp when he was my age and he thought it was cool. He had his first romance here”, he said.  
“Cool do you know what their name was?”  
“He told me his name was Dan or something, I don’t really know exactly”.  
“Your cousin’s gay?”  
“Yeah, any problem with that?”  
“Not at all dude. My bro’s also gay. It’s just hard to find supporters and stuff here in the south you know. We got all that homophobia and racism. We’re kinda famous for that shit you know”.  
“Yeah right. I just hope it wasn’t as bad as I thought because no one should be shamed”.  
“Yeah you’re right there but since this is the south you never know and you’re safer if you don’t talk too much about it, talking from experience.”.  
Fuck  
Did he just out himself?  
Oh god.  
Oh god.  
Fucking shit.  
Here it comes.  
“You’re gay too?”.  
Thank god it wasn’t the trans thing.  
“Yeah kinda. And by too you mean my bro, or are you also miraculously gay so we can all have a rainbow party?”, he asked and raised an eyebrow.  
“Well not exactly gay but I am bi if that’s what you mean”, he said and Dave nodded. He liked this kid, lgbt+, and also seemed cool. He bets that he’s a prankster of some sort.  
“Cool bro”, he said as an answered and lifted his hand for a fist dump. “Out of all peeps here atleast I know you ain’t a liberal ass. Let’s stick together and this camp may be a little less miserable and tiring”.  
“I would love too. I don’t have so many clothes friends back home and I would love to get to know you better. You look like a cool person. But what’s up with the shades?”.  
“I have to look cool while I do fucking cool and ironic stuff. What more do you need as an excuse to use shades 24/7?”.  
“Well I guess you have a point there”, he said and shrugged. “So are we gonna go and explore this place? My cousin told me there is a small waterfall like a mile or two into the forest. We could bring my hammoc there and have a cool hangout just we dudes, and maybe bathe”.  
“Well sure but I ain’t much for water so you gotta swim yourself, but a hammoc sounds nice”.  
“Yeah let’s go there tomorrow. I heard we had a free day tomorrow and the day after we have camp activities”.  
“Like what, finding pinecones?”  
“I heard they have music programs inside a building, and photography. And we’re even allowed to play video games for an our each at each week of we want too”.  
“Do they have Overwatch? If so, sign me the fuck up”.  
“You like Overwatch too? Man I love that game! What do you think about CoD and Halo?”  
“Pretty good games, but you gotta play Kingdom Hearts. It’s a classic. I started playing it ironically because Disney characters meets anime but I   
ended up liking it a lot”.  
“Sure I will, I bet they have that game on a retail sale or something”.  
“Well I would let you borrow my copy but well, New York and Texas”.  
“Yeah that sucks”. After Johns sentence, there was a few seconds of silence, as both looked up and saw into each other's eyes for just a second, before John jumped and took a deep breath.  
“Let’s take a walk around here”.  
“Well sure Egderp”.  
“Hey don’t call me that!”.

\------

The dinner bell rang, which made Dave and John who had fallen asleep under a three were they had talked about their interested, too wake up. Dave took of his shades and rubbed his eyes while John stood up.  
“Come let’s go and eat”.  
“Chill dude, let me stand up first, it’s not like the food is gonna dissapear”, Dave said as he put his shades back on.  
“C’mon!”, John shouted, took Dave’s arm and started to run.   
Fuck.  
His binder made it hard for him to run and it made him exhausted really quick, he wasn’t supposed to overwork himself, especially not when he was wearing this thing, for more than 8 hours. His breathing became faster and he got less and less air in his lungs, and soon he felt like the room was spinning a little, and he fell.  
“Dave are you okay???”, John asked as he slowed down and went up to him.  
“Y-yeah dude. I just have really bad stamina. As in really really bad. So please be chill about running okay.


	3. Chicken Fajitas and Tshirts

Chapter 3: Chicken Fajitas and Tshirts

Day 1 out of 28 of camp

“Let’s sit there”, John said and pointed to an almost empty table before putting on one more slize of pizza on his plate. Dave put a chicken fajita on his place and nodded.  
“Sure dude, why not?”.  
John took the lead and walked up to the people at the table and sat down, and Dave slowly followed. People just weren’t his thing, or well, most people.  
“Hi I’m John and this is Dave. What’s your names?”.  
“Rose”.  
“Ashley”.  
“Lucas”.  
“Tavros”.  
“Feferi”.  
“Hi everybody, you all sound cool, is it okay if we sit here?”, John continued and they all nodded. Dave sat down, took up his fajita and started to eat without giving the others much attention, unlike John who was talking exitedly with everyone. Words like “cool”, “video games” and for some reason “The Wizard of Oz” were reoccurring and used every other sentence. How the last one was one of them, he did not understand, but that may have been because he hadn’t listened at all. Well it’s not like he missed a lot, and his delicious fajita was much more important at the moment. Yes much more important, you couldn’t exactly eat a human or anything.  
“Dave did you hear what he said? That was so cool”, John suddenly said.  
“Oh yeah, yeah I heard. Cool”.  
“I still can’t believe it. Tavros that is so cool”.  
“W-well it’s nothing really”, Tavros said and his already sunburned face became even redder”  
“And you Rose, what do you do in your spare time?”, John asked.  
“I knit a lot, and write. When I get older I’m gonna publish books. I’m working on one called “Complacently of the Learned”, and it’ll be about wizards and stuff. And I also chat a lot with my girlfriend Kanaya, she’s also a camper by the way”.  
That girl had a girlfriend? Had he suddenly teleported out of deadass Texas and came to an lgbt+ paradise with lots of supporters and openly gay people? He sure hoped so because Texas really sucked, and he would do anything for Texas to become less… Texas.   
“That sounds cool, is she nice?”, he heard himself ask her.  
“Yes she is, she is lovely and kind and she is an awesome fashion designer. Like she could totally make you some nice clothes, she brought fabric”.  
“Cool I’ll consider that if I see her. Could always use a new hoodie or two”. He disn’t say that just to be nice, he loved hoodies. They made him not only look cool, they made him look masculine, or well, less feminine. And that they were cosy was a plus, sadly they were a little warm during the summers but that wasn’t gonna stop him from wearing them. Maybe once he’d got top surgery on a few years.  
Maybe.  
“Well I’m I'm sure she could make you one if you asked, and one for you too John. Just tell her how you want it to look and it’ll be done in no time. She actually made my dress here”, she said and Dave noticed how detailed the pink and black dress was. It looked cool and like it was personally designed for her, which it was, but you get the point.  
“Nice she is really talented. I wish I was as talented at something. The only thing I’m slightly good at is video games, and reading. I’m such a nerd”, John said.  
“Well who said being a nerd was bad? Right Lucas?”, Feferi said and looked at the boy that sat between her and Tavros and he nodded.  
“Nerd equals cool here. And since you there is a mr cool dude or whatever”, he said and looked at Dave. “You’re also a nerd. Congratulations for joining the best club ever”.  
“Fuck yeah I’m honored, if nerd is the new cool. Then I’m cool 2.0, just you see”, he answered, trying to have much pride in his voice so he wouldn’t sound nervous. He had to sound like the confident cool dude he claimed to be, and act extra manly so he could pass easier. And with that he went back to eating his fajita while the others talked about free time interests, tv shows and headcanons. He thought that got a vague understand on all their personalities while listening, especially John. He was right, he was a huge nerd, the nerdiest nerd in the history of nerds, but that was cool, Dave kinda liked him, he didn’t know why but he couldn’t think of anyone who would dislike John. John was just, John. A big ray of sunshine wherever he went and Dave could never imagine him making anyone sad. Aka the opposite of himself. He wished he was as outgoing as John but he could never be that, he just didn’t like being around new people that much incase he didn’t pass in front of them or something and they started rumours. It had happened twice already at two different schools, both times with it turning so bad so he had to change because even the teachers looked down on him for being trans.  
Oh the glorious state of Texas, how he loved Texas for their trans friendly views. Loved it so much so he would like to tear it out of the world map with his own hands and slung it into space and into a black hole, never too be seen again, where all those views belonged, as far away from him as possible.   
He ate the rest of his meal and then just sat their in silence, waiting for John to finish his last pizza slize so they could leave.   
“You know what we’re doing after this?”, he heard Ashley ask.  
“We’re going to the aula were we had the introduction thing and we’ll get camp shirts and markers and after that we have free time and at eight PM we can attend a campfire with sing alongs and marshmallows eatings if we wanna”, Rose said. “I talked to that leader with the name Jessie and that is atleast say she told me”.  
“Fucking great. I just love those kinds of things”, Dave answered sarcastically.  
“Well we can atleast try it, right Dave?”, John asked and Dave just nodded. Sure why not? It was John asking after all.

\------

“Okay kids, everyone go and take a shirt at the table, smaller sizes at the left and larger ones too the right. There’s tons of markers on the table, so write your name and draw something that just say, “you”. Everyone understand? Great, let’s start”, Jessie said and kids started to walk to the table, quickly taking shirts and markers.  
Dave walks to the left side of the table since he was kinda small, smaller than the average dude atleast, and was so thankful that the camp had XS shirts. S was usually the smallest ones in the men’s section on clothing store and most of those were still too huge for him and made his binder visible. He grabbed a marker and quickly wrote Dave in the corner of it, beside that camp text and the house logo. Underneath he drew a CD, since music was his thing and he did my know how to draw something that represented rap other than that.   
“Cool CD”, he heard John say and he saw that he drew some animal of sort on his.  
“The fuck is that dude?”.  
“It’s a pogo. I was gonna draw something related to video games but I suck at drawing so I drew this thingy”.  
“Okay cool dude. So what are we doing now? Are we supposed to stay here or are we allowed to go? I don’t wanna stay in this place with all these fucking people more than necessary, man”.  
He scratched the back of his neck as he said that, trying to look less awkward than he felt.  
“Well these guys over there are leaving so maybe we’re also allowed to go? So what do you wanna do? We have a few hours before night”.  
“Well no idea dude, let’s just say walk around and see what you can do at this cruddy place”.

\------

“You wanna go to the campfire?”, John asked. The sun was setting for the night, making the sky orange that turned darker every minute.  
“Nah. I’m tired. I’ll go to the cabin. See you later Egderp”.  
“Okay see you Dave”, John said and started to run to the campfire, leaving Dave alone.   
He took a deep breath.  
Finally  
John was cool and all but now he needed some peace and quite. And a shower. And too take off that fucking binder. He’s been wearing if for 13 hours. Five hours too much, and his chest fucking hurt like hell. Curse his fucking chest, he hated it so much and wanted to just cut it off and throw it into an abyss to never be seen again.   
Well it ain’t much he can do about it.  
He turned around and started to walk to his cabin, after like a few minutes he was there. The cabin was empty so he quickly took up his bag that he had pushed under his bed, opened it and took out his night clothes, boxers and an oversized tshirt and walked into the bathroom. The moment he slided his binder off he took a deep breath and sat down on the floor, just breathing. It hurt so ducking much and the sides of his chest were red. Breathing normally again felt like an overwhelming luxury right now.  
After a few minutes of gasping for air, he stood up and walked back to the rest of the cabin and put his clothes away, putting the binder all the way down so no one could find it. He also put his camp shirt that he had previously put on the bed, down into the bag.  
He crawled into his bed. He usually went to bed really late but the exhaustion from today made him fall asleep in minutes.


	4. Hammock Hang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unrelated but I feel so sorry for you Americans today.

Chapter 4: Hammock Hang

Day 2 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up by the sound of talking. The five other cabin members, including John were all getting dressed and talked to each other, while not carying at all about privacy.   
Seeing an unknown dude’s junk was not on his wish list for the first thing he saw during mornings. Just ew dude, please stop. It just reminded him how much of a freak he was.  
He quickly jumped out of bed and turned around so his back faced everyone so that they wouldn’t see his chest. He took a pair of pants out of his bag and his his binder inside of his hoodie and then went to the bathroom to change.  
“Hey dude you gay or what? Doesn’t want us to see your boner?”, a dude with red hair said and everyone except John began to laugh.  
“Well unlike you deuces I was raised with class instead of the back of an alleyway”, Dave answered and closed the bathroom door. He could hear John shout “Buuuuuurn”, at them with made him smirk a little.  
He lifted his tshirt over his head and groaned. How he hated his chest. He closed is eyes so he wouldn't have to see them more than he needed too, and stepped into his binder like he had done countless of times, and quickly put his hoodie over it before stepping into his pants.   
Okay since he’s already in the bathroom he could atleast brush his teeth so he wouldn’t have to go in there another time soon, as few bathroom trips as possible was good.   
He took a deep breath (or as deep as you could with a binder on) and then stepped out of the bathroom, the other boys were all also fully dressed now, everyone wearing shorts and different t-shirts. Dave just grinned at the t-shirt was wearing, it was fanmerch, the T.O.P logo on it. The other buys made funny remarks about it.  
“Dude you like T.O.P?”, Dave asked and John nodded. “Cool. Let’s go get some breakfast”.  
As they walked out of the cabin he said “I really like them too. They’re kinda a guilty pleasure, but don’t tell anyone”.  
“Oh my god you like them too? Nice, I need to show you the rest of my merch later”, he answered and he nodded.  
“Cool dude”.  
They walked into the dining area and went and took food, Dave ate some bacon and eggs while John took pancakes and a small bowl of yogurt, and they sat down at an empty table and began to eat.  
“So what are we doing today? Since it’s a free day and all and so we won’t die of boredom”.  
“Well what about visiting that waterfall we talked about yesterday. I know you’re not much for swimming but please”, John begged.  
“Well okay but only if you bring that hammoc you talked about. And I swear if you try to get me in the water you are dead”.  
“Yes let’s go!”.  
“Dude please let me atleast finish my food first. Okay man? And you should probably eat up too”.  
“Oh yeah I kinda forgot about the food”  
“Well it’s confirmed, you’re a huge fucking nerd”, Dave said and smiled slightly before starting to eat again. “Well this place sure knows how to make some delicious fucking breakfast instead of all the public schools in this goddamn state. One point to you Camp Haven, I ain’t complaining about this thingy”.  
“Well the food served in New York’s public schools isn’t much better, but I don’t have anything to compare with, but I must say that you’re right about the food here. It’s really good”, he said and took another bite of his pancakes. “These sure remind me of my Nanna’s pancakes. She always makes them for me when I visit her. She told me she got the recipe from an evil empress and leader of a baking empress during a game of chess but I don’t really believe it. I think it was just something she said to impress me as a toddler”.  
“Well yeah dude, but it sure would have been hilarious to see an old lady have chess with like Betty Crocker or something”.  
“Oh jeez don’t mention Betty Crocker. I got into a shock when a found out gushers were made by that company”.  
“That is fucking hilarious. But why did you even have gushers in your house? Those are nasty”.  
“My dad likes them, I don't know why though”.  
“Ew”.  
“I know”.  
Dave then stood up and held his place. “You ready?”  
John nodded, stood up and took his plate, put it away and then they left the building, walking to their cabin so John could fetch his hammoc and a par of swim shorts, that they put in a bag so it would be easier to care, before they walked to the outskirt of the meadow near the lake and reached the beginning of the forest. Dave took a few breaths and closed his eyes as he walked. He couldn’t explain it but the forest was relaxing and quite. Just he and John against the world in this relaxing environment far away from this other idiots that were their co campers (okay some were okay like Al, Rose and Jade as such but that’s like it. The others were complete deuces and Dave would rather sleep in a wolf den than spending time with those campers). They continued walking for a couple of minutes without saying anything, just looking at the environment around them. This was just so different than the city. The forest was just so calm.  
So free.  
Oh how he wished he was it too, but every day he was controlled by things he couldn’t do anything about and it felt like there was an eternity between being free and where he was right now.  
“Look over there!”, John shouted and started to run. Dave followed as good as he could and when they reached their destination he was tired as hell.  
“Wow”.  
There really was a waterfall. A small waterfall about three meters high, that flew into a river that Dave thought led into the camp lake. There was a small area behind the waterfall that they didn’t see at first, and Dave thought he saw small bushes or something were they could put the hammoc so they would have more privacy.  
“Nice! I’m gonna get changed and jump into the waters right now!”, John excitedly said, took his swim shorts from the bag and quickly ripped his shirt of.  
Oh god he had small abs.  
Wait what?  
Fuck.  
Dave do not feel tension for the derpy nerd.  
Don’t you dare.  
Fuck.  
Well it wasn’t exactly and deep romantic feeling but dude his torso was hot, and he could feel his face get warm so he quickly turned around.  
“Dude I’ll go in there and fix the hammoc and then hang there a little”.  
“Okay sure”, John answered as he was taking off his shorts and that was the moment Dave just took the hammoc and walked away. It would be so awkward if he saw John’s junk. He didn't know if his gay heart would be able to handle that, and he didn’t want to find out.  
He got behind the waterfall and put the hammoc up by attaching it to the branches of the pushes and quickly sat down on it, relaxing. He could hear John swimming and splashing in the water outside, and he just listened to those sounds for a few minutes before taking up his phone from his pocket. Fuck that rule that said that phones were only allowed inside of the cabins. No one was here anyway and some background music on speaker would be cool af while behind a waterfall, aesthetic goals.  
When he locked up his phones he saw that he had a new notification from the pesterchum app just two minutes ago. Why didn’t he feel the phone vibrating? Oh right he turned that off while at camp so he wouldn’t annoy people at night. He took a deep breath, opened the app and saw that it was a message from bro.

\------ 

10:46 AM  
timaeusTestified began pestering turntechGodhead  
TT: Hey lil bro how is summer camp so far?  
TT: Are you on?  
TG: yeah chill im on  
TG: camps less shitty than i thought it would be  
TT: Okay that is rad to hear. How are you feeling?  
TG: pretty good  
TG: u  
TT: Well a little stressed but excited af because of my amazing smuppet project in production.  
TG: hows that even going  
TT: Well after some awkward porn and sign language with a Japanese tourist things are good.  
TG: what the actual fuck  
TT: It’s a long story.  
TT: Anyway, managed to make any friends?  
TG: yeah actually  
TG: name’s john and hes a rad nerd   
TG: or as rad as a nerd can be  
TT: Okay cool.  
TT: I gotta go lil bro. Talk to you later.  
TG: see ya

10:57 timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead

\------

Dave sighed and put his phone in shuffle mode and put it on the ground as he laid back in the hammoc with closed eyes and relaxing. Repeating several phrases that stuck in his head as doing after song played.   
“I wanted to be a better brother, be a better son”.  
“No one knows it’s you miss Jackson”.  
“I thought I was an atheist until I realized I was a God”.  
“Well I must say you are God material”, he suddenly heard a voice said.  
“John when the fuck did you get out of the water and in here?”.  
“Like two minutes ago, I guess you were to busy singing too notice”.  
“Well fuck”.  
“It’s cool. I really like your singing voice. It’s really cool. I didn’t know you were a soprano (1)”.  
Fuck   
He had heard Dave’s singing voice. His high super girly voice. Fuck fuck fuck.  
“Yeah I don’t really tell anyone I’m a soprano because it’s weird”, he said, trying to make his voice as deep as possible while in a mild panic.  
“Well there’s a lots of boys with light singing voices and I don’t think it’s weird. Your singing voice is really cool as I said”.  
“Well okay dude”.  
Thank God he didn’t question his voice.  
“Is there place for one more in that hammoc? I’m tired after all that swimming”.  
“Well sure dude. It’s your hammoc”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Soprano is the highest pitch that a person can sing as default. Most common in pre pubecent (cis) boy and adult (cis) girls.
> 
> Song quotes from this chapter are from following songs.  
> Polarize by Twenty One Pilot  
> Miss Jackson by Panic! At the Disco  
> Woah Whoa Whoa by Watsky


	5. What Happens at 4 PM

Chapter 5: What happens at 4 PM

Day 2 out of 28 of camp.

He felt someone’s lips pressed against his own.. His heartbeat was up in his throat, and he felt his cheeks turn red.. He felt a hand on his back and his whole body melted by that soft touch, and he felt those soft lips pressed onto his again, for a second, for ten seconds, for the best moment of his life. He had never felt this great before. All his worries were gone. He was free and joyful. He never wanted it to stop. Their lips parted and he was embraced into a big hug, and he heard himself whisper,  
“I love you”.  
And just as he was about to open his eyes to see who his mysterious lover was, he woke up.

\------

Dave yawned and carefully opened his eyes, and yawned again. He noticed the noice of pouring water. Oh yeah right he was in the hammoc. It took a few blinks but then he noticed that there was a warm body beside him. John was sleeping next to him, his head on his chest, which made his heart skip a beat, and another one, and another...  
He looked so cute and peaceful as he layed there, fast asleep on his chest with a small smile on his lips, with his buck teeth showing slightly, and made small whimpers in his sleep.  
Damn how could the derp be so cute?  
Dave didn’t know if he should take it easy or freak out. John only wore his swim shorts, his bare chest was pressed onto him, and his messy hair smelled of water and flowers, mixed together with his natural scent. He never wanted it to stop, it was as good as his dream.  
John.  
The one in his dream must have been John.  
Fuck it. He may feel amazing while laying there, but he just realized he had a fucking crush on the only friend he had. The nerdy lil derp.   
John may also be gay, but Dave was afraid John wouldn’t like him if he found out that he was trans. He was afraid he would say something like that he only liked “real men” and stuff like that. What a glorious way to crush someone's self esteem even more. 10/10 would do again. And of all people on this motherfuckimg planet, why did it have to be just John? The first person in years that he had really considered a friend? He even had told him about his secret like for T.O.P, nobody else knew that. And now this crush was just gonna fuck everything up. Like it always did.   
He knew it was too good to be true that he would be able to live a normal boy life with normal boy friends as a normal boy himself.  
“Hmm pancakes mmn…”, he heard John whisper in his sleep and Dave couldn’t hold himself for laughing. For a moment he forgot everything and just forgot about John. He was hilarious. But once that short moment of pure perfection had passed, he was back to feeling guilty about himself and his feelings. But mostly about his body and how disgusted he was by it, and how disgusted John would be by it. That’s why he would never find out.  
Never.  
Oh god this was one of the moments were he was sure he would literally sell his soul to the devil if that made him have the right body. He would even eat Betty Crocker for the rest of his life.  
“See God? That shows how desperate I am. Fucking Betty Crocker. Than you so much for your hugeass fuckup on me”, he thought to himself and sighed.  
He just laid there in his misery and confusion for he didn’t know how long, and finally John woke up.  
“Morning”, he said as John rubbed his eyes and yawned.  
“Hi Dave, I hope I wasn’t a bother by falling asleep on you”.  
“Not at all bro, it’s chill”, he said, trying to mask the nervous shaking in his voice.  
“How long was I asleep?”  
“I don’t really know, I left my watch in the cabin but I have my phone so I’ll check that”, he said and took out his phone out of his pocket. Thankfully it had 27 % left, but HOLY SHIT THE TIME!  
“Dude it’s 4 PM. We got there at like 10:30. We were asleep for hours”.  
“Oh no we missed lunch”.  
“The camp may think we’re missing and your biggest worries are about missing lunch?”.  
“But they said there would be tacos today…”.  
“C’mon put on your clothes and we gotta walk back. Leave the hammoc, we can come back here more times. Hopefully no one has noticed we’re gone yet because I do not want a search party after us”. His brain was working on autopilot right now, feelings put aside as he wanted to get back to camp without causing a big fuss that would become the hottest gossip on camp.  
He jumped out of the hammoc, quickly followed by John who fast put his boxers over his swim shorts and slid into his shorts, shirt and shoes in less than ten seconds.  
“Let’s go!”, he shouted and took Dave’s hand and began to run.  
Fuck.  
Yes he wanted to get back to camp fast but running. Especially since he’d had his binder for hours. His chest burned but he kept running, for half a mile more? He didn’t know, but when he was finally about to give up and collapse he saw the counturs of camp on the distance.  
“Dude slow down, I’m tired as fuck”, he gasped to John between breaths, trying to keep himself from falling to the ground, after a minute of gasping for his breath, he felt good enough to walk and he just nodded to John as they continued to walk out to camp. It looked like usual (or Dave thought it was usual, he had only been there since yesterday), and no one glansed at them as they walked around. No one must have noticed that they were gone, or maybe no one cared what the campers did at all during the free days, not even if they attended meals or not.  
“Dude I’m gonna head to the cabin and take a long af shower and stay in the cabin for the rest of the day. I’m so fucking tired so you don’t understand”, Dave said as he looked away to the distance were his cabin was. He really looked forward to that shower and to take his binder off and just relax in bed for the rest of the day. He needed some longer breaks from his binder because his chest really began to hurt.  
“Okay. I’ll see you later once I go to the cabin. Will you go to the campfire tonight?”  
“Nah I don’t think so”. Just the thought of putting the binder back on after taking it off today was a big no for Dave.  
“But Dave it was so fun yesterday. Singing and grilling marshmallows and s'more and telling horror stories is much funnier than it sounds. Trust me”.  
“I really would John, but right now I am so tired so it feels like I will die of exaustion. I need some rest so I don’t become sick”.  
“Okay take care. I’ll see you later today”.  
“You sure fucking will”, Dave said and smiled as he walked to his cabin.


	6. Eagles and Coyotes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone living in Washington state? I have a friend there who is missing currently and if you live there please send a message. She's 13 and lived in Milton.

Chapter 6: Eagles and Coyotes

Day 3 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up earlier than all the other campers in the cabin, feeling an aching sensation in his chest. It was still hurting after his overuse of the binder.   
Hopefully he could get atleast one or two more hours without it before having to put it on again for the whole day. He had thought that the relaxing yesterday was gonna be enough for the pain to dissapear. He had been laying in his bed ever since yesterday afternoon when he got back to camp from the waterfall. John had visited a few times and they had talked about their usual random stuff ranging from rap to unicorns in ironic tv shows to shitpost on redit involving memes, and later at night John brought back a few marshmallows from the campfire and Dave had promised to go to the campfire the following day. So he guess he was going to a campfire tonight.   
After that they had talked for like an hour before going to bed, and Dave had had the same dream as he had had while sleeping in the hammoc. The dream about him kissing John, and that it seemed like time had stopped for that moment.  
And then he had woken up and now he were here, laying in bed, staring into the wall whole bring the only one awake.  
He rolled around a few times while breathing deeply, trying to relax himself. If he couldn’t fall back asleep he could atleast try to make the rest of his waiting for the others to wake up more comfortable. He didn’t really want to get out of bed before the others, incase he accidently woke them up while he was looking in his bag for his binder or something similar. Oh and around next week his period was coming up, how the hell was he supposed to hide that in a cabin with 5 cis boys?  
Life was just so fucking perfect right now.  
He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, letting time pass, and after what fell like an eternity, the others started to wake up too.   
He pretended to be asleep until everyone else were up and chatting, and like yesterday he quickly took a bundle of clothes, hiding the binder carefully, and went to the bathroom to change. He quickly changed, and groaned over the fact that he wasn’t allowed to wear his hoodie today, all campers had to wear their camp shirts. He may be wearing a binder, but a tshirt wouldn’t hide his hips as good as a baggy hoodie. As he slid the shirt over his head he prayed that no one would notice or just think that he just happened to have bigger hips than average.  
Atleast his binder wasn’t visible in this shirt, thankfully it was one of the rare ones that didn’t look ridiculously big on him, but purple wasn’t really his color. Oh well he could do nothing about that.  
When he walked out of the bathroom he saw that everyone except John was gone.  
“They went to breakfast. Let’s go before all the pancakes dissapear”, he said and Dave nodded. He was kinda hungry and pancakes seemed tasty.  
“Sure dude”.  
They left the cabin and soon arrived inside of the dining all, and both puts lots of pancakes on their plates before sitting down at an empty table and began to eat. A few minutes of silence followed because both were to busy devouring their food like animals.  
“Man I sure was hungry”, John said before he burped.  
“I sure can see that”.  
A few more minutes passed, and then Jessie and the other camp leaders demanded everyone's attention.  
“Hello all campers! This will become a fun exciting day were you will get to try some amazing cool stuff. You will all be assigned to groups, a few papers are sat up on the walls so you can see what group you’re in, and then you come to us and get your group schedule. There will be four groups, which means you’ll be around 25 in each. The group names are, Bearcubs, Snakeyouth, Early Eagles and Coyote kids. You will all also get another camp tshirt, one that designed for your separate teams during our games. Is that clear?”.  
Oh god those names are so fucking lame. Who invented them? Kindergarten teachers or some shit? Well probably.  
Dave stood up and walked to the wall together with all the other campers, and waited for his turn to look for his name in one of the teams, which took fucking forever by the way because people did not understand the meaning of lines, but at last he found out he was part of “Coyote kids”.   
He just shrugged and walked to the part of the hall were he heard someone shout “Coyotes here”, and waited. A tall dark haired woman that he had seen at the introduction gave them all orange tshirts with a black sillouette of a coyote on it and the Camp Haven logo on the back, and smiled at them.  
“Hello there all Coyotes. I’m Miranda and we will have so much fun. You’ll all get a Coyote camp tshirt that you’ll use during game days and similar things. Today we are first going canoeing in the lake, and after lunch we’ll have lake race to see how you all can swim and after that you’ll all have a free period, dinner and then another free period. Won’t that be fun?”.  
Fuck  
Fuck fuck fuck  
Fuuuuuuuuck  
Anything but swimming. What the hell was he gonna do? He couldn’t exactly swim, no way, no fucking way. Everyone would find out he was trans and that ain’t happening for shit. No matter what he did he would be so exposed. No cis boy wore a shirt to pool, and his binder would be visible, and if he swam without it his boobs would be visible. His normal luck was showing.  
“Dave!”. As he turned around he saw John waving with a blue shirt around his neck.  
“Sup”.  
“I became an Eagle! What about you?”  
“Coyote”.  
“That is amazing! We’re going away into the forest today and bringing lunch with us, so we’ll be back at around 3 pm. What is your group gonna do?”  
“Canoeing and some shit. Nothing that interesting”.  
“Well I hope you’ll have fun. See you later!”.  
“See ya goof”. Yes John was such a goof with a super positive attitude, but that was actually kinda nice right now, it made him forget about the swimming for a moment. And with that he was gone, and Dave also returned to his group, who all marched to the lake and jumped into canoes (that didn’t even have time to leave the new shirts so Dave tied his around his shoulders, which made an odd combination with his shades). He got into a canoe together with that ginger kid he had seen wearing a turtleneck two days ago.  
“Sup. You were the shouting kid am I right?”.  
“What the fucking fuck is that supposed to mean? I ain’t a “shouting kid”, I am Karkat fucking Vantas. Got that fuckass?”  
“Okay got it, that was atleast less shouting than last time I saw you”.  
“OKAY YOU WAN’T SHOUTING? YOU GET SHOUTING YOU NOOKSUCKING INSUFFERABLE PRICK”.  
“Chill dude, don’t you understand fucking sarcasm?”.  
“THE ONLY THING I DON’T UNDERSTAND IS HOW YOUR FAMILY EVEN WANTS YOU ALIVE MR BESSERWISSER SHADE”.  
“Okay pleasure to meet you too. I don’t know if you remember my name, it’s Dave, not Mr Besserwisser Shade, even tho I must admit that name would have been fucking rad. Ten out of ten in naming skills for the small ginger with a lot of energy”.  
“You say that again and I push you out of the canoe and will then make you wish you were never born”.  
“Suuuure dude”.


	7. Getting Out of Swim Like

Chapter 7: Getting Out of Swim Like

Day 3 out of 28 of camp.

He didn’t know how, but he actually managed to surivive three hours of canoeing on a lake with Karkat. Except for all the screaming and complaints and even more screaming, it was actually kinda nice. The nature was nothing like the city, and the last hour Karkat seemed to become a little more friendly and only insulted him every fifth minute instead of a few times per minute. Even though his mumbling was annoying as fuck, Karkat was actually kinda cool and liked pretty cool stuff, including rap. And once he stopped swearing he was actually kinda decent.   
Kinda.  
Once they got out of the canoes and onto the shore, Dave took a few deep breaths, and became relaxed. Man he was hungry like a wolf, he bet he could eat an entire horse, and his arms hurt like hell.  
“Well fucking finally. How did I fucking survive three endless hours with the most pathetic shade nook in eternity?”, he heard Karkat say.  
“Well you sure are looking on the bright side today mr Turtleneck McShorty”.  
“Grrrrrr…”.  
“Well anyone I am going to my cabin to finally put away that damn coyote shirt so see you ginger”, Dave said as he untied the shirt around his shoulders. And with that he walked off, closing out all sounds he heard as he walked to the cabin and put the shirt inside his bag before walking to the house with the dining room.   
Since John’s group was still out in the forest, he quickly put a bean burrito and some mac and cheese on his plate before looking around for a table and saw that the girl with white fake anime dog ears and round glasses sat by herself.  
“Why not?”, he thought to himself as he sat down at the table across from her. If he remembered correctly her name was Jane… no it was Jade. And he had seen him with Karkat a few times, and he had noticed that she was also in the Coyote group.  
“Sup?”, he asked before taking a bite out of the hit burrito.  
“Hi. So what did you think of that canoeing?”  
“It was pretty ok but Shouty McShortface never stopped talking”.  
“Oh you were the one paddling with Karkat. I know, he can be pretty annoying before you get used to him or get to know him but he is a really good friend. And if you think he talks much, you don’t wanna meet his big brother”.  
“Wait are you serious? Like is it even possible for someone to talk more than him? Like for real? ”.  
“Yep. His name’s Kankri and he’s 18”.  
“What’s up with his family and their weird naming traditions?”.  
“Well I personally don’t know, but I got a lot of friends with strange name, like Terezi and Vriska, you’ve met them”.  
“You mean blind map reading girl and spider girl right?”  
“Yeah that’s right. There’s also Sollux, but he’s back home in California, he’s not much for a camper, couldn’t bear the thought of using his phone for only an hour and leaving his pc at home”.  
“So a stereotypical hacker I guess”, he said as he took the last bite off his burrito, and moved onto the mac and cheese.  
“Yeah, that explains him well. What do you like?”.  
“Rap and irony is my life. But video games are kinda cool too I guess, depending on the content. Like Overwatch is the holy grail of gaming, and I heard about an upcoming game called Sburb, with multiplayer and pvp features in HD graphics better than VR. Sounds fucking rad”.  
“Well I’m not much for gaming but that sounds cool. I’ve also heard about that Sburb game. Maybe we could play it together online?”.  
“That sounds neat as fuck. My pesterchum is turntechGodhead so you can message me about it once we’re out of camp and stuff once it’s released”.  
“Yeah I’ll do that. Mine is gardenGnostic. Gaming actually sounds kinda fun, or atleast that Sburb game. I heard it’s slogan is something like “So real””.   
“Yeah it is, and gaming is a thing I like once I’ve found a good game like I said. And I guess you’re a fan of anime, because the ears”.  
“Oh yeah, I kinda do. There’s so much great anime out there and I wanna watch all of it”.  
“Well then you better work quickly since there’s so many”.  
“Heh yeah. But what do you think about swimming after lunch? Are you excited? I sure am”.  
Oh fuck.  
“Well I don’t really like water. When I was five there was an accident and I really don’t wanna swim”.  
“Oh poor you. Sadly I heard that swimming would be mandatory or something, I don’t know if it’s true though, but I think so since they want to know if we can swim and such”.  
Well now he was fucked. He had to find a loophole somehow.  
He quickly finished the rest of his mac and cheese while Jade kept talking about random anime stuff, and he listened, putting in a “cool” or “ok” or “nice” every now and then.  
And then he heard Miranda shout “Coyotes! Leave your food and group up here and follow me”.  
He just sighed as he slowly started to walk with the rest of the group.   
What the fuck was he gonna do?   
After walking away from the dining hall, Miranda ordered them to stop.  
“Okay kids, first we’re gonna talk about some safety rules, and then you get to go to your cabins and change and then get back here in ten minutes after you leave, and then we will also go into the water. Okay first rule, no pushing someone in the water. Rule number two, if you think you can’t make it, don’t do it. Rule number three, if you see someone in need of help in the water, help them and tell an adult. And finally rule number four, all of you have to swim today so we can see how good you are at it. Okay now you can go and change”.  
As the other kids started to run, Dave shaked. This was it, his life was over.  
He took a few deep breaths and then began running like the others, his heart beating up in his throat. It was now or never. He came up in an astonishing speed, and jumped into the air, doing a half finished back flip, hitting his head into the ground on purpous. As he felt the pain, black dots appeared in his vision before it completely turned black. It hurt like hell and he could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead. When did he got so hot?  
Atleast he would be out of swim.  
And with that he lost consciousness.


	8. Bedstuck

Chapter 8: Bedstuck

Day 3 out of 28 of camp.

He felt an extreme pain slowly grow around his neck and back, making it feel like he had been punched by a professional wrestler, and it came out of nowhere and startled him. He opened his eyes and stared up at the bunk over his head. John's bunk. He was in his cabin, and tried to remember what happened, before new memories flooded his head in an instant. Speed, jump and pain filled his head and he remembered.  
“Oh right the jumping thing”, he thought to himself.  
What the hell was he thinking?  
If he lost conciousness someone must have carried him to his bed, what if someone noticed his binder while carrying him? What if the leaders found out and forced him into a girls cabin.  
This was just his fucking luck.  
Stupid, stupid, stupid.  
Everything he did always fucked up no matter what, but atleast he still had his binder on.  
And he couldn't even go and find out about it since he was alone in the cabin and was too weak to stand up at the moment. He would just have to wait until someone got here and started to talk and then he could figure out if they knew or didn’t or something like that.   
Hopefully they didn’t know.  
He slowly moved his arm to reach under the pillow were his phone was located, and as he got a grip of it he slowly slid his arm up and he opened his phone. It was 2:30 pm.   
He’d been out for about two hours.  
He just sighed and took up the pesterchum app.

…...

2:31 PM  
turntechGodhead began pestering timaeusTestified 

TG: yo  
TG: bro u there  
TG: ok nevermind  
TT: Okay I’m here.  
TT: Sorry for the delay lil bro. I had to fix something.  
TG: and what is that something  
TT: A weirdass human smuppet thing that failed.  
TT: Involving us getting arrested.  
TG: ok i dont need to know more  
TG: that just sounds fucking gross  
TG: and confusing  
TT: No it is fantastic.  
TT: Also why are you on the phone?  
TT: Aren’t you supposed to do some camping thing right now?  
TG: nah  
TG: we ended canoeing early  
TG: and i managed to get out of mandatory swim so praise me  
TT: How? Dave you didn’t do anything stupid or lil bro?  
TG: nah i just pretended to faint and it worked  
TT: Sure?  
TG: yeah  
TT: Okay atleast you aren’t hurt.  
TT: I have to go now. I’ll talk to you later. Take care.  
TG: see ya

2:57 PM  
timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead 

…...

After ending the chat with bro, he sent gardenGnostic a friend request since Jade had wanted to become friends, and then he closed the app, and opened his music library but closed the app a second later. He was not in mood for music. He locked his phone and put it back under his pillow. Bro couldn't know that he actually jumped and fainted. He would just get mad, and give him a long lecture about what was okay and what was stupid to do, even if it meant hiding the fact that he was trans, and he did not need another lecture. It wasn’t even sure that his secret was safe anymore anyway, so what was the fucking point?  
After a few minutes, he heard the cabin door opened, and he saw Miranda walking in.  
“Oh good you’ve woken up. How are you feeling?”.  
“Kinda ok but crappy. My head and back hurts”.  
“Okay. When you fainted I carried you to the nurse and she said that the pain will dissapear over the night, but you’ll be in bed rest until tomorrow lunch”.  
“Sure”.  
“Also there’s something I wanted to talk to you about. When I carried you to the nurse I noticed you were wearing a binder”.  
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuck.  
“Fuck”.  
“It’s cool. I won’t tell anyone, if I did they would try to put you in the wrong cabin”.  
Wait what had she just said? A woman in deadass Texas who was supportive, and didn’t see him as a freak? Okay now he knew he must have died during that jump.  
“I’ve managed to get you out of mandatory swim by telling them about your weird unclean water allergy. I have to go now”.  
What?  
“Okay?”.  
She actually was helping him? How? How the fuck?  
Miranda approached the cabin door, and before she left, she looked at Dave and said “You remind me of my brother. He was amazing and was my best friend. If you ever need to talk with someone about it, you are always welcome at my door”. And with that she was gone and Dave was confused as fuck. Did she have a brother that was also trans? Was her brother even alive? And did she just invite him over for tea and biscuits or some shit? And keeping the fact that he was trans a secret because she knew what dysphoria felt like? Or what???  
What even was happening? He had so many questions. So many fucking questions and he wanted answers to all of them so that he for once wouldn’t have his head in the clouds.  
“Just fuck it”, he said out loud and grunted, punching the wall beside his bed.  
Ouch.  
He should not have done that, but he just seemed to be as stupid as usual, if not even more stupid. A lot more stupid.  
Well since he was in best rest until the next day (or probably much longer depending on how competent the nurse actually was with judging pain and healing), he slowly took of his binder while still laying in bed, it took ages, hurt like hell, and was hard as fuck but after a while he finally managed to get that damn thing off his chest and then hid it under his pillow beside his phone because he didn’t have enough energy to put it in his bag (yep the nurse must defiantly be bad at judging pain). How the heck did the nurse think he was gonna be okay tomorrow by lunch? He would be happy if he was okay in the span of a week or so, maybe it would even take a whole fucking month for him to recover. It was his head and back for fuck’s sake. And what the hell would bro say when he found out that he had actually hurt himself to get out of swim, and that he had lied and all that shit? As said before, the owner of the most fantastic life in all eternity, Dave Strider everyone, time for applause.  
Well this was gonna be a long and boring time in bedrest, and he couldn’t even try to make it more interesting, or even a tad less boring as in boring to death, because that fucking pain.   
He groaned and closed his eyes, soon drifting away into the land of dreams, unaffected by the pains for a moment, once again having that amazing dream about John.


	9. John the Nurse

Chapter 9: John the Nurse

Day 3 out of 28 of camp.

He once again felt hot lips pressed against him, and arms carefully sliding around him before entering into a deep hug, and after what felt like an eternity, a fantastic eternity that he never wanted to end, their lips parted.  
He could still feel the touch of his lips when thinking about it, and all of him was warm, so warm.  
He felt himself smile, and as always, just when he was about to open his eyes, he woke up.

……

“Dave! Dave!”.  
“Five more minutes…”, he said, trying to get back to the dream.  
“Dave wake up!”.  
“No”.  
“Dave Strider you will wake up now”.  
“Ugh fine. Oh hi John”. He yawned and stretched his limbs a little.  
“I looked for you everywhere at camp and then I found out what had happened. Are you okay? Does it hurt?”.  
“Oh yeah that thing. I’m pretty okay but my neck and back fucking hurts worse than being on fire or some shit, totally not exaggerating or anything, in bedrest until tomorrow lunch though”.  
“Okay, but what exactly did happen?”.  
“Everyone started running and I thought, hey let’s do a rad backflip or some shit, and I for some fucking reason thought it would be a Percy Jackson thing or some shit with super cool reflexes at camp McGod or something”.  
“Wait what? Did you try a backflip? And also, have you even read Percy Jackson?”.  
“Nah. Tumblr thaught me the basics and I only use it for ironic comebacks and stuff”.  
“Well okay. But if you ever wanted to read them you could borrow my copies, the series actually pretty good and enjoyable, or well the first series is, and the second is too but the author kind of changed his personality and made him a bit of a jerk, but the series’ still pretty good. I could send the books via mail and stuff”.  
“Okay I don’t think I will ever read them but sure, sounds cool”.  
One part of Dave squealed. That sentence just confirmed that John wanted to keep contact with him after camp, and even give him some personal belongings to borrow if he wanted to, sending them across the country, and it was hard to still keep that plain face and cool attitude he always had when all his body was smiling and made him feel so warm, warmer than the hottest day in Texas. As he nodded he could feel himself getting hotter and hotter, and realized his face must be turning red. Hopefully John wouldn’t notice.  
“Dave does it hurt? You’re red”.  
Fuck you unnaturally pale skin.  
“Eh yeah, kinda. Didn’t realize I was red though”.  
“Okay. Do you want me to go to the nurse and get you an aspirin or something? And maybe some ice?”.  
“Well you don’t have to waste your time on me, it doesn’t hurt that much dude”, he lied  
“I’ll be back in ten minutes”, he said and left the cabin.  
John actually left the cabins to get things for him to make him feel better. Did he actually care for him?  
Just the thought made Dave completely red again. He wish it was true, that John cared for him, because John was the most interesting person he’d ever met so far. A goofy nerd with awesome interests and just a nice personality. And the fact that he was bi was a huge plus, the back of Dave’s mind secretly hoped that his crush liked him back.  
Probably not though (since who would like him out of all people?), but he could always hope.  
He counted to sixty, one time, two times, five times, fifteen times, twenty times.  
John was ten minutes late.  
He probably decided that Dave wasn’t important enough or just boring, because who wouldn’t think that? Moments like this made him feel like a huge pile of garbage, when it felt like he didn’t matter to anyone.  
“Fuck it”, he whispered to himself and closed his eyes, since John probably wasn’t coming back he could always nap some more.  
Yeah napping would atleast make him unable to feel his self doubt for a few minutes atleast. Just as he was about to drift away he heard the cabin door fiercely slam into the wall.  
“Sorry that it took so long, I got some extra stuff and ran around camp all the time actually, gotta go fast you know”.  
John actually came back.  
“Well hello there, looks like Nurse John is in the house”, he said, trying to keep it could. No way that he would let John know about those emotions that he experienced when he was gone. Fuck no.  
“Well not exactly a nurse but”.  
“So what you got in that plastic bag mr nurse?”.  
“Well first I went to the nurse and got a few aspirins, and then I went to the dining hall and grabbed a bag of chips, a few bottles of soda or water, and a few sandwiches since you won’t be able to get up and eat. Oh and here’s the ice”, he said, taking out a small plastic thing filled with eyes, and put it under Dave’s neck.  
“Thanks dude. That is actually really thoughtful of you”, he said, before returning to his normal speak. “Mr nurse sure knows how to make peeps happy and shit”.  
“Well I just want you to get better faster, and took more things so that you have stuff when you get hungry and thirsty or need more meds and so on”.  
“Dude seriously thanks. You’re a cool nurse”.  
“Could you stop calling me nurse?”.  
“Nah. Your new name is Nurse now. Nurse Joy Egbert”.  
John burst into wide laughter, and the sound made Dave’s heart skip a beat. He had just heard the cutest thing in existence, and he prayed that John wouldn’t notice him turning red again.  
“Dave I swear you’re hilarious man”.  
“Hilarious is my middle name dude. Dave Broderick Dirk Hilarious Strider”.  
“Pft, I don’t have any middle names but where does Broderick and Dirk come from?”.  
“Well me and my bro added them when I was about 5, when our parents died (he couldn’t exactly say kicked a four year old and his bro out of the house for being different), his name is Dirk, and Broderick is just a pun of bro since well us Striders and our top notch irony. I’m planning on actually adding hilarious too once I’m 18 (along with the other names).  
“Your bro sounds like a nice person, raising you by himself”.  
“Yeah he is pretty cool, he may be weird as fuck and fuck up pretty often and accidently make things worse, but he always tries to help and do the best he can even if it doesn’t turn out as he planned, and when he travels to Jersey to shoot puppet porn”.  
“Wait what?”.  
“You heard me. He’s famous on the Internet for puppet porn. His dream is to win an Oscar for it, but it’ll probably never happened since well porn, but Leonardo Dicaprio got one so it seems like everything is possible these days”.  
“Pft you sure know your memes”.  
“Yeah, sometimes you gotta appreciate the old classic means like flying lawnmower and Leo, instead of all the new ones like Dat boi and Harambe, rest in peace by the way, poor gorilla. Seriously the Internet should stop making deaths into memes”.  
“Yeah you’re kinda right about that one. If I died I wouldn't like it if people made fun of it, and that comes from a pro trickster”.  
“Pro trickster? Suuuure. I haven’t seen you doing a single prank”.  
“It’s because you have my mercy”.  
“Helden Sterben Nicht”.   
And with that, John facepalmed and unleashed a loud groan.  
“What dude? You said I had Mercy”  
“You know what I meant”.  
And with that both broke into laughter. A budding friendship began to form, and Dave could feel it in his guts. Maybe, just maybe, if he was lucky enough, this friendship could develop into something more than a crush, a full on romance with John.  
That was his dream wish right now, when that goofy buckteethed boy sat beside him while he layed in bed, and kept him company the whole night.


	10. Concussion of Hell

Chapter 10: Concussion of Hell

Day 4 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up by the sounds of birds singing outside of his cabin, the light reflecting from the window into his eyes and the rest of his body, making him warm. He laid still there for a few minutes, still too tired to move but awake enough to hear the birds twitter and the ticking from the clock on the wall, other than that it was completely silent, which meant that he probably was alone and that it was past nine or something and everyone was out on camp activities.   
He didn’t care if he overslept today, he was in bedrest for a few hours more anyway, probably even more since it still hurt, a lot more than yesterday. It was extremely painful and he felt like he was going to throw up without actually having the energy to throw up. He would just have to stay here and once he got hungry he could just grab a water bottle and some chips from under his bed, his arms were long enough for that.  
He took up his phone, looked at the time (9:28 am), put his headphones in and pressed shuffle, and then ate a mouthful of doritos while listening to Moral of the Story. He thought that the chips would make him less nauseous because of hunger, but he was dead wrong, and it was hard to not spit everything out onto the floor. And on top of everything that, he felt unatutally tired.  
Please for the love of God don’t be a severe concussion.  
After a few minutes of groaning and the nausea getting worse, he took up his phone and googled “concussion symptoms”, while Heathens, played in his headphones. He crossed his fingers and prayed.  
“Common symptoms may wary but usually are nasuea, throwing up, headache, confusion and tiredness. Sometimes symptoms doesn’tahow until hours later”.  
Well he was fucked.  
He groaned as he turned off the music and put his phone under the pillow, he was too tired to use it.  
He took a water bottle, his arm hurting so much in the process so he wished to get it cut off, and slowly drank some water, with only made him cough and even more naseus. He didn’t know how long he could take it, but he felt like he would die if he stood up and went to get help. He simply had to wait for someone to get there and ask them to get the nurse. Until then he could atleast nap a little, yeah nap sounded good, he thought as he felt another big nausea attack coming.

……

It was completely black, and it felt like he was floating. He didn’t know what was up and what was down, and he didn’t even know if he was able to move or not, he felt nothing except the floating thing. It was like he was there, and didn’t exist at all, all in one, and he didn’t know which he preferred. Probably the one where he didn’t exist, then atleast he would have no problems and feel no pain.  
After God knows how long, he actually felt like his body existed, and he immediately felt the falling.  
Coward.  
Freak.  
Fuckup.  
That’s what he was.  
The speed accelerated for every second, and he had a hard time realizing what was going on.  
He deserved this.  
He then felt his back hit something hard, and he woke up”.

……

“Dave are you okay?”.  
As soon as he heard that sentence, he pulled his head out of bed and threw up on the floor. His head was ringing and he was so dizzy so he though he was sitting on a rollercoaster.  
He tiredly looked up, and saw John staring at him, shocked. He must have woken him up.  
He let out a groan in pain and looked at John, to tired to say anything but begged for help.  
“I’ll get the nurse asap”, he said and a second later he heard the cabin door close.  
He just groaned again and felt back asleep.

……

The black nothing was back, and he once again felt himself floating in the dark, not even seeing his own body or feeling anything properly..   
He heard laughing coming from every direction, screaming be whispering at him the the same time, which made him even more confused. Up, down, left, right, all directions he turned was dominated by laughing. Laughing at him, because of how fucked up and useless he was.  
He tried to scream, but couldn't open his mouth, and then out of nowhere, as if someone had snapped with their fingers, he felt the speed of falling.  
He just took a deep breath and waited for the impact as his speed accelerated, and then just stopped. And he woke up.

……

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times, getting used to the lighting while letting out a groan.  
“Hey Dave, how are you feeling?”, he heard John’s soft voice ask, realizing that he was in the cabin.  
“I still feel shitty as fuck but it’s much less intense now and I can talk. What even happened?”.  
“I got the nurse and she told me you got a concussion, we gave you some meds while you were passed out and then she left after cleaning up. She told me that you just need some rest and then you’ll feel better. You can be good tomorrow or next week, only you get to decide when you feel good enough to get up. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up for a while”.  
“What's the time?”.  
“Around 5 pm-ish the last time I checked”.  
“Oh shit. You serious? I was out for a long fucking time”.  
And John actually stayed here to watch him.  
“Yeah. Now when you’re awake I’ll go to the dining hall and get some food, you’re probably hungry. See you in a sec”. And with that the cabin door closed.  
While he was waiting for John to come back he took up his phone to waste some time and saw that he had several notifications on pesterchum, all from his bro from around 3 pm.

……

2:49 PM  
timaeusTestified began pestering turntechGodhead.

TT: Hey lil bro.  
TT: What’s up?  
TT: What’s happening at camp today?  
TT: You there?  
TT: Okay you’re probably actually doing camp stuff today.  
TT: I just wanted to know how you were doing.  
TT: But you can tell me that later.  
TT: So well.  
TT: Text me once you see this.  
TT: See you.

3:02 PM

timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead.

……

Dave read all the messages and quickly replied by saying that he had been out doing things like hide and seek in the woods and other typical camp stuff so bro wouldn’t be suspicious, and then closed the app, waiting for John to come back.   
After a few minutes he heard the cabin door open and John walked up to him, putting a few bottles of water, a bag of chips and a been burrito on a plate on the nightstand.  
“Nice, how did you know I liked burritos?”.  
“Well I didn’t know. I just took what looked the tastiest, I’m glad you like it though”.  
“Well thank you dude, this burrito is nice. I love burritos. Anyway what’ll happen at camp tomorrow? More canoeing?”.  
“Well we will have a free day tomorrow and the day after tomorrow there’s camp activities again. If you feel better tomorrow we could take our weekly half hour of game time in the common room, it’s up the staires in the same house as the dining hall, and I checked, they have Overwatch.  
“Niiiice”, he said. “If I’m better tomorrow, sign me the fuck up. Do they have multiple consoles so we can play together?”.  
“Yeah they have two”.  
“Nice. Tomorrow we’re going to dominate the battlefields Egderp”.


	11. Breakfast Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The t-slur will be used once (with the a censored) in this chapter

Chapter 11: Breakfast Talk

Day 5 out of 28 of camp.

The rest of the following day went on fairly normal, or as normal it could get if your last name was Strider. Dave and John just spent it together talking about their common interest (everything between rap to pointy things too the Hanilton musical) as Dave stayed in bed, and today when he woke up, he felt much better.   
It still hurt a lot, but he couldn't handle being in bed rest another day, it was so fucking boring (no hard feelings John, company is great and all but bed gets boring), and what even would happen if he took it easy? He would be totally fine in no time.  
Right now he heard the chattering from his cabin mates while they got dressed, John included.  
He heard them talking about random stuff, and they soon left the cabin while John stayed behind.  
“Hi there dude”, Dave said as he sat up in bed.  
“Morning Dave. How are you feeling?”.  
“Better than yesterday. I’ll just change, then we can go and eat and then play video games like the huge nerds we are”.  
“Sure that sounds nice”.  
“Yeah”, Dave answered as he took his hoodie out of the bag and hid the binder inside it, took some pants and boxers and then headed to the bathroom and changer quickly, and after five minutes he and John were walking to the dining hall to eat breakfast.  
Once they arrived inside the hall, Dave put some waffles on his plate and then sat down at and empty table with John who had taken a mountain of scrambled eggs.  
“Dude how are you even supposed to consume so much food?”.  
“My dad’s a baker that doesn’t like leftovers and stuff, I’ve gotten used to it”.  
“Wow I would die in your household, I can’t even finish a whole portion of casserole or sometimes not even a Big Mac with fries, your dad would kill me”.  
“Well I think that wouldn’t happen, he’s kinda nice and would probably bake you a “thanks for trying” cake”.  
“Well I ain’t taking any risks, I ain’t coming to New York to visit you after camp, if we plan a visit you visit me. I don’t want to get the wrath of a baker father after me”.  
“Sure. I would love to see more of Texas than this camp. Especially one of the bigger cities, like Austin where you’re from. That would be really cool”.  
Dave felt the blood rushing to his cheeks, he begged to God that John wouldn’t see him blush, but thankfully he seemed to busy eating his eggs to notice. John at his house. And he had actually liked the idea.   
Dave just prayed that John would still like him at the end of camp so that it would actually become reality. Maybe even like him as more than friends.  
Since when did he become so sensitive and a sucker for the subject of love? Seriously when did this happen? He was the cool calm and confident dude and now he only thought about love and cute stuff.  
He hated it.  
Well he loved the idea of love and John (because John was cute okay) but the idea of him being lovestruck felt too feminine. Like someone would try to use it against his identity, that’s why he always acted like the stereotypical cool dudes from movies. If he showed interested in love in front of others people would call him girly, and if they found out he was gay they would just call him “a straight girl that’s trying to be special” and “a tr*nny that deserves death”. It’s happened a few times at school, or well a lot of times, even a few teachers used to say things like that, which totally made an awesome confidence boost and shit during all of elementary school and lots during high school. It all was so bad at one point so bro threatened to contact a few guys he knew and sue the school, (which thankfully didn’t happen because the school didn’t wanna pay loads of money so they were forced to change their behavior on him even if they didn't want too).  
He just sighed as he shook the thoughts out of his head and took another bite of his waffles.  
“So what do you wanna do later after we’ve had our game time?”, he heard John asked as he wolfed down those eggs.  
“Well I don’t know dude, you decide”.  
“Okay we can figure that out later, the day is long”.  
“Yeah”.  
And with that, some silence, neither of them knowing how to continue the conversation at the moment, so Dave just awkwardly ate the rest of his waffles and rinsed it all down with some apple juice (god apple juice was amazing, like it was fucking Christmas there) and waited for John to finish his meal, which only took another minute.  
“Okay dude let’s go and game”, he said and John nodded as the left their plates and walked to the closest camp leader, which was Jessie, and asked to have their weekly game time, and five minutes later they sat in a pair of been bags, with controllers in hand, waiting for the game to load.  
“Dude it’s so fucking awesome that they have two consoles and two tvs. Well I guess they should since it’s a camp, but for once, praise you Texas”, Dave said.  
“I’ve sent the party invitation. Wanna go quick play, competive or brawl?”.  
“Competive all days man”.  
“Cool, who’ll you play as?”.  
“The white suburban dad aka Soldier 76, for ironic purposes. And you?”.  
“D.Va. I got that legendary bee skin for her and ain’t afraid to use it”.

……

That half hour was filled with intense competive gaming and mostly wins, and they groaned when they were forced to stop playing. Atleast Dave had gotten some currency from a loot box before closing the game so that he soon could buy that highlight intro he wanted so bad, and when they left the building, Dave sighed and asked,  
“So what now?”.He was getting tired, and the pain was a little worse than when he woke up but he was not telling anyone that because fuck bedrest, he was too bored for that shit. And John would just think it was boring to watch him all day.  
Wait why was John even watching him that much anyway? He could have met others kids and went and done normal camp stuff with people that was actually interesting instead of watching over a sick weirdo.  
“Well we could go down to the lake shore and just sit there or we could go back to the cabin if you need more rest”.  
“Lake shore it is”.  
“Okay but please tell me if you need rest”.  
“Okay I will”, Dave answered, his heart skipping a beat because that wonderful buckteethed nerd cared for him, even if he didn't understand why.


	12. Deep Thoughts at the Stone Throwing Lake

Chapter 12: Deep Thoughts at the Stone Throwing Lake.

Day 5 out of 28 of camp.

It took five minutes to walk to the lake, and once the arrived they sat down on the grass near the shore. Dave looked around, some kids were swimming further down and he spotted a canoe on the other side.  
He took some deep breaths, picked up a stone and threw it, again and again. The splashing sound calmed him somehow.  
“Wanna see who can throw the longest?”, John asked as he also picked up a rock on the ground, and threw.  
“Hey you ain’t beating my high score!”, Dave shouted as he saw how far away John’s rock landed, and quickly threw another. Soon it turned to a heated contest were they threw rocks every second for god knows how long, trying to beat the other one.  
“Okay dude I give up. My arm hurts like hell”, Dave finally said and groaned over the pain. Maybe not the best idea but it was fun while it lasted.  
“John Egbert, the best and strongest bodybuilder that has ever existed”, John said as he grinned widely, making his buckteeth even more visible than usual.  
“Don’t push your luck dude, I swear, you may be able to throw rocks longer than me but I bet I would easily take you in a one on one wrestling match. Once I get better I’ll show you that I’m a fucking master. You’ll be down in a minute dude”.  
“Sure I’ll wrestle you”, John answered and stuck hos tongue out, making a silly face.  
A cuuuute silly face.  
Damn it Dave, don’t let your gayness act up now, he though to himself as he felt the warmth in his cheeks and realized that he probably had gone a few shades more red, again.  
He had to stop this blushing, like seriously, he couldn’t blame it on feeling ill for much longer, John would soon get it, everyone would get it. And it would be so fucking awkward if John knew about this fucking crush and he wasn’t interested back. Everything would be so awkward and he would probably start ignoring Dave, who wouldn't?. It was a miracle that he still wanted to hang out with him, or even acknowledge that he existed after five days. People always started to ignore him on the first, or if he was lucky, the second day after meeting him. Just the glory of living in deadass old school Texas where you have to be stereotypical, straight and cis or else you ain’t a real Texas man or some shit like that according to most of the people in this ENTIRE FUCKING STATE.  
He wondered how New York were. Did John also face hard difficulties for being by, and was it near the one in Texas. He hoped it wasn't, and was also curious over how much easier it must be to be a part of the lgbt+ in a place that wasn’t a homophobic shithole (yes those summed up his feelings on Texas very well).  
“How's the big apple like?”, he heard himself ask.  
“Well nothing usual for me since I live there, but it is really big and crowded but also fun and you can do lots of things and it’s hard to explain, you have to be there to understand. One day I could show you around at all my favorite places if you ever flew up there”.  
Oh god he actually suggest visits again.  
“Nah I’m not flying. I’m more of a road trip man, car for the win”, he said while trying to ease his own mood and calm himself.  
“Cool. If you and your brother ever decides to drive up to New York you gould always text. I’m sure dad would let you sleep in the guest room”.  
“Cool. I’ll do that. By the way do you have pesterchum? I like that better than usual texting”.  
“Yeah I have it. My username is ectoBiogist, what’s yours?”.  
“turntechGodhead man”.  
“Nice, I’ll add you once we’re back in the cabin since my phone’s there”.  
Dave just nodded, trying to look cool but all of him was singing in joy. He had his pesterchum, and even more visiting talk had come up. Dave was certainly not used to all this luck with friends/potential dream lovers, and he still couldn't get that it was maybe gonna be real, it felt too good for him and therefore to good to be true at all. But it may be.  
Maybe someday if may be true.  
He just had to not scare that buckteethed Prince Charming away and not like a total creep and pray to God that he won’t end up hating him if he someday accidently found out that he was trans.  
Fuck he had almost forgotten about that thing fur a moment.  
For a moment he had felt normal, less of a fuckup than usual.   
After that sentence, some silence followed as Dave looked into John’s eyes for just a second before turning his head to watch the lake.  
Those sky blue sparkling eyes. They matched today's sky perfectly, amazing sunny weather without a single cloud in sight, but John’s eyes were even better than the sky.  
He wish he was able to tell him that but the chance of fucking everything up, and be seen as too feminine stopped him.  
“The nature around here sure is nice, muchnicer than all that tree lack in New York, well except for in the parks”, he heard John say quietly.  
“Yeah it is. That waterfall we were at a few days ago was top notch, would make some nice pics if you ran an aesthetics blog on tumblr”.  
“Heh yeah. It was kinda nice there. Wanna go back there in a few days if you’re feeling strong enough to walk that distance? My hammoc is still there so you can snooze while I swim a bit, or if you also wanna swim”.  
“Nope I ain’t putting my foot near water but hammoc sounds nice. As soon as my back stops hurting like a motherfucker I’m in”.  
“Yay”, John said and made a slight smile, and if he wasn’t going blind, Dave swore that he saw John’s face change color for just a second. It was probably just his imagination but he hoped that he was right about what he saw, and if what he saw was true, that if was formed from romantic feelings or atleast a small crush.  
“So wanna go back to the cabin? It’s getting boring out here dude”, he said as he stood up on his feet.  
“Sure. There’s like an hour before lunch so we could just hang there. Dibs on the sour cream and onion chips”.  
“Yeah those are mine you egg”.  
“Not anymore. Want to decide over a race to the cabin?”.  
Dave thought about the pain in all his body, and the fact that he was wearing a binder, but ignored it and just nodded.   
“Fuck yeah I’m on”.  
And with that, the race back to the cabin had begun, John taking the lead.


	13. Dreams

Chapter 13: Dreams

Day 5 out of 28 of camp.

“Yay I won!”, he heard John shout as he opened the cabin door ten meters from Dave. He was tired as fuck, his bones hurt and he had an extreme headache and couldn't breathe properly. Well he guess that’s what he gets after running right after a concussion, while wearing a binder on top of that. He sure was stupid.  
“Yeah dude you won, could you please give me some soda. I need to drink something or I’ll die for real”.  
“Sure, Coke or Pepsi?”.  
“Is that a fucking question?  
“Yeah it was. What do you want?”.  
“Coke of course, the original with glory. Pepsi’s just a cheep copy that’s sold at KFC and other places like that”.  
“Well I kinda like Pepsi better, I don’t know why but the taste appeals to me”.  
“So the taste of liquefied rubber, bleach and chemicals is appealing to you?”.  
“THEY’RE ALMOST THE SAME! I don’t know why I like Pepsi more, please don’t judge me”, he said as he let out a small giggle.  
“Sure”, Dave answered, also giving a slight laugh, while thinking about John’s giggle as he handed him a Coke. So cute.  
He sat down on his bed and opened the can and took a few deep zips, nothing can compare to a nice Coke when being tired (or well Pepsi in John’s case), and after a few minutes Dave heard someone's phone go off, and John took up his.  
“It’s my dad. I gotta take this”.  
“Sure. I’ll text my bro while you talk”. And with that he logged into pesterchum.

……

11:36 AM  
turntechGodhead began pestering timaeusTestified.

TG: yo bro  
TG: u there  
TG: i got some spare time to text  
TT: Sup lil bro.  
TT: How’s your day?  
TT: And how are you feeling?  
TG: pretty good  
TG: a little tired but no biggie  
TT: Cool. Did something happen?  
TG: nah  
TG: me and john just played overwatch and threw some stones  
TT: They have video games at camp?  
TG: yeah   
TG: it’s pretty neat  
TT: Yeah that’s nice as fuck.  
TT: If we only had those when I was your age.  
TG: please no boring sentimental flashback  
TG: hows the smuppet porn project going btw  
TG: broken anymore laws  
TT: Pretty good and no we haven’t broken too many yet.  
TT: We managed to not get arrested today and we got a motherfuckimg Japanese pop star on our crew now.  
TG: how  
TG: the  
TG: fuck  
TG: did  
TG: you  
TG: forget it i dont wanna know  
TT: I don’t even know how we did it myself tbh.  
TT: I guess Striders can do anything.  
TG: yeah we striders are a fucking riot  
TG: gtg btw john is back  
TT: Okay see you bro.

12:04 PM

turntechGodhead stopped pestering timaeusTestified

…...

“So how’s your chat with your dad?”.  
“Well it was nice. He just asked what we did and like always went with his “I’m proud of you son, soon you’ll be strong enough to lift the fridge” talk and stuff like that.  
“Cool. Anything more”.  
“Yeah he asked about friends and I told him about you. He seems to like what he’d heard and I think he’s warming up to you”.  
“Cool”.  
Oh god.  
John's dad.  
Warming up to him.  
Like if he was John’s boyfriend.  
Well he could only hope.  
“And you? Did you and your bro talk about anything interesting?”.  
“Nah not really, but he managed to get a Japanese pop star to do smuppet porn or some other sick shit. I don't even wanna know the details and I don't think you want too either”.  
“Good point”, he said and yawned. “So what do you wanna do?”.  
“Well I don’t know I’m just so fucking tired”.  
“Maybe you should rest a little”.  
“But lunch starts any second”.  
“I’ll bring you something, you sleep, you’ve had a concussion and should probably sleep if you wanna”.  
“Okay dude”, Dave said, and now it was his time to yawn.  
“I’ll go and eat then and bring you something once I’m done”.  
“Sure dude, see ya”, and he heard the cabin door close.  
Dave swept his blanket over himself and then closed his eyes and he were out in just a few seconds.

……

He saw a meadow, a big meadow without stop, filled with amazing flowers of all colors and sorts, and no matter were he turned he saw the same thing. He looked up, and the sun blended him so he had to close his eyes. He looked down and carefully started walking, he didn't know where but he had to walk, he just had too.  
He walked for god knows how long, and it looked like he hadn’t moved an inch because everything was the same, and it really confused him.  
Where was he even supposed to go?  
After another five minutes (or atleast he thought it was five minutes) he gave up. He wasn’t gonna get out of this never ending fucking meadow, he just had to accept his death.   
He sat down.  
And then.  
Fell.  
He fell for a few seconds before feeling a slight pain in his head, and he opened his eyes again. He was no longer at the meadow, and now he actually wished he could go back to those flowers. Everything around him was red, like if he was on an Earth that only grew red things. He apperantly was in hell deluxe or some shit, and did it get, hotter?  
Yes he was in hell goodbye world.  
He just sighed and walked around, but everywhere he went he just saw people getting tortured, screams of pain and dread filling every part of the underground's(he won’t go into detail because that was morbid as fuck, except the one being sentenced to listening to opera music for all eternity or something like that) and here and there some people walking freely but mindlessly, and every few seconds someone whispered and he didn’t know were it came from.  
Okay he would looooove to get out of this place.  
Now.  
Like seriously he wanted to get the fuck out of there as fast as possible, this place was just sick.  
And after a few more minutes of walking around and trying to find a way out, he felt the falling again, and now he was in his usual empty void in space. Not what he wanted, but well atleast it was better than hell.  
He tried to move around, but as usual he was stuck, and he just sighed and waited for the falling to start, if he was lucky it would happen soon, and hopefully he would wake up.  
Wake up…  
Right he was dreaming.  
He actually realized he was dreaming, but still could not fucking move.  
“C’mon you fucking dream void let me fall so I can wake up”, he thought to himself, but nothing helped. If he was able to move his hands, he would have facepalmed really hard.  
Well he guessed he would just have to give up and wait for god knows how… you gotta be kidding.  
He was falling exactly as he gave up, fucking weird dream logic. He just closed his eyes and waited for the impact, and woke up.

……

As he opened his eyes he saw an empty cabin, and John sitting on the floor in the middle of the cabin, reading a book.  
“Morning dude”.  
“Hi Dave. It’s around 5 pm, you slept five hours”.  
“How the heck did I even manage that?”.  
“Well you need sleep, and food. There’s two burritos on the night stand”.  
“Thanks dude”, Dave answered and took a bite.  
“No problem. Are you going to the campfire tonight?”.  
“Sure. Why not?”.  
“Cool”.


	14. Campfire Stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the horror story in this chapter is lame but so am I

Chapter 14: Campfire Stories.

Day 5 out of 28 of camp.

Dave slowly walked to the dining hall together with John too eat dinner. It was crowded and he quickly put a few slizes of pizza before he sat down together with John on a table with several other campers, Karkat included in that bunch, they ignored each other but it was impossible to forget that he was at the table because of all that loud annoying fucking swearing.  
After eating for a few minutes, John began smalltalking.  
“You excited for the campfire?”.  
“Kinda. It’a not like I have a choice whenever to attend or not thanks to you”.  
“I regret nothing”.  
“Sure dude”, Dave answered and took another bite of pizza.  
“Well I think you’ll like it, it’s been really nice the last couple of days”.  
“How can ghost stories and s'mores together with total strangers be interesting? I can do without the stranger part. I would choose sitting on a campfire alone every day over sitting with weird ass strangers”.  
“Well we were strangers a few days ago so I don’t think you’re uncomfortable with all of them”.  
“Touché. But you’re a nerd so you don’t count because you’re cool”.  
“Well I’ll take that as a compliment”, John answered as he took a spoon full of cereal (yes he ate cereal for dinne for some reason).  
“Yeah dude. It’s a big honor to be called cool by the Strider man you know”, he said and blinked, even though it wouldn’t be visible under his shades, he just wanted some secret flirting that John wouldn't see as flirting because he just had too try atleast. He hoped with all of his heart that John was secretly as lovestruck as he was himself. Maybe life would finally be kind to him after 15 years of shit, but why was he even getting his hopes up?  
Of course nothing would happen to his favor, he just didn't wanna realize that he never could have a happy ending. It has never happened before and totally will never happen because life really hated Dave. Being born in a fucked body, bullied all life, having to pretend to be extra cool and extra manly so no one would call him a faker and so on. And now the fact that he was crushing on a super cute cis guy that probably doesn’t wanna date a trans person.  
“I’m done with my dinner, and you?”.  
“Done in a sec, let me just take a few more bites of this slice”.  
“Sure”.  
He took a few more bites and then finished all of the slice, and then stood up.  
“Okay dude let’s go”.  
“Sure. Wanna go down to the lake again before the campfire?”.  
“Sure”.

……

Dave was slowly walking beside John towards the area where the campfire was gonna be hold. They had spent the last two hours by the lake shore and thrown stones and talked about memes, their favorite music and reboot anime (John’s idea) and it was kinda neat, atleast much better than what was gonna happen now.  
Just the idea of the campfire made Dave anxious, too much people for his taste. He would rather just run back to his cabin and go to sleep and ignore all of this, but he had promised John so. Even if John probably wasn't interested he still wanted to be kind to him because he simply wanted him to have a good time, even if it mean that he had to suffer through a campfire.  
Wherever he looked, he saw other campers walking in the same direction, chatting with each other.   
Oh god they were so many, it was almost worse than the presentation circle at the first day of camp.  
“There’s a few empty places at the log over there, let’s sit down”.  
“Sure dude”.  
He sat down beside John, and a blue haired guy he recognized as Al, Aradia’s cousin or something.  
“Hi”, he said.  
“Sup”.  
“You were Dave right? I met you on the first day”.  
“Yeah that would be me. Atleast it was last time I checked”.  
“Cool. Who’s that?”.  
“That’s John, who should probably answer himself”.  
“Wait what… oh hi, yeah I’m John”, John answered.  
“Al Megido. Pleasure to meet you”.  
“Pleasure is the same”.  
With that Al started to talk to his own friends, and Dave and John just sat down quietly, waiting for the camp leaders to come. He must say the fire looked really nice, it was big and looked warned and welcoming and looked like it had the perfect temperature to grill marshmallows without burning them, which was neat because he really wanted something sweet right now.  
“Look there’s Jessie and Mark”, John said and pointed at the leaders who were about 50 meters away from the fire, and most campers shouted things like “hello” and “there they are”.  
Once they arrived, Jessie smiled and began talking.  
“Good evening all campers! Time for another fun campfire together. Today me and Mark will hold in it, so like always we'll hand out food and sticks to grill them on. Who wants to start telling a ghost story?”.  
Several kids raised their hands, and a brunette with long hair began telling the usual “Bloody Mary” story, that was an amateur story for horror lovers like Dave.   
By the time he started grilling some marshmallows another kid told a story, this time it was all about Slenderman stealer directly from the creepypasta wiki, and the third story wasn’t much better, it was about fucking Herobrine from Minecraft. How could these campers think that these were scary stories? Like how???  
He had enough.  
He ate his last marshmallow and then waited for the smalktalk to become a little less loud and he said,  
“I wanna tell a story”.  
“Go on”, he heard Mark say.  
“Yeah let’s see what you got”, a kid that Dave recognized as one of his cabin mates said.  
“Well I ain’t the best story teller but here I go”, Dave said and coughed before continuing.  
“It was a dark and stormy night in London, and Katie, said goodbye to her parents who were going to babysit her cousin and be home tomorrow at noon, so she would be home alone with her dog.  
After they left she turned on the tv, and the reporters warned about a serial killer than had escaped from jail, and that everyone should keep their windows and doors closed.  
No biggie, Katie knew the prision was far away and her parents would be home soon, so she feel asleep with her dog.  
A few hours later, she woke up by some thunder and she quickly put her hand out of bed, and her dog like always locked her hand. That always calmed her and she fell asleep again.  
The same thing happened again, she wore up, the dog licked her and she fell back asleep.  
The next time she woke up, it was light outside.  
She got out of the bed and slowly went to the bathroom and once she opened the door she thought she was going to puke. Her dog was impaled by the shower curtain bar, blood slowly dropping from it into the bathtub that was half full and a knife laid on the floor.  
She quickly turned around and what she saw made her spines shiver.   
One the mirror over the sink, written in blood, it stood “Murderers can also lick””.  
Dave smirked as many campers shivered and clearly looked a little scared.  
Weenies, he had been kind to them and told them a preschool story.  
“Wow Dave I had no idea you knew horror stories”, John said.  
“I’m a man of many talents”, he said and smirked again, going back to grilling marshmallows.


	15. Ruined Morning

Chapter 15: Ruined Morning.

Day 6 out of 28 of Camp.

Dave felt the light tickling his eyes, making him turn around to avoid the light, and yawned as he tried to fall back asleep. He was tired and really wanted some extra minutes of sleep before another day of camp began.  
Just a few more…  
Minutes…  
His eyes became heavier again, which was heavenly wonderful to say the least. He felt himself being on the brink of sleeping again, soon being back in the land of dreams, but then it was destroyed by some fucking idiot in just a second.  
“TURN DOWN FOR WHAT YOU FUCKERS!”, he heard someone shout, one of his cabin mates had jumped out of bed and started to scream that sentence over and over again like a record player to wake them up, and it was annoying”.  
Dave moved a little in shock and was awake in an instant.  
“Can you shut the fuck up? People are trying to sleep you idiot”, he said.  
“Yeah Justin can you stop screaming you fucking gay or I’ll punch you”.  
There it came…  
Someone used gay as an insult…  
Again…  
Yeah he definitely were in deadass Texas, how could he have forgotten?  
“Fuck off faggot if anyone is gay it’s you”.  
“Fuck off I ain’t a fucking weirdo.  
“You are you disgusting fuck”.  
Okay now Dave really wanted to punch those kids in the face, nope, hit them with a spiked baseball bat seemed more suitable. A lot more suitable.  
Like now he was getting mad for real. They were not only mocking him and John, but also all the other people in the lgbt+ community and just ugh.  
He just groaned and turned around, trying to fall back asleep which was hard as fuck, because all cabin members except him and John acted like wild monkeys and began shouting and talking to each other, using really racist and homophobic terms and slurs that Dave will not repeat because they gave him the urge to literally throw these kids into a meat grinder while they were alive, and because he was sure some of those insults were considered ILLEGAL by some states.  
That fucking stupid talk continued for god knows how long, maybe an hour, until they were dressed and left for breakfast.  
“Finally”, he heard John say in relief as he yawneed when the cabin door closed.  
“I swear I wanted to punch them so bad during all of that discussion. They made me so fucking mad”, he answered and groaned.  
“Yeah what they said was really gross and I also wanted to punch them and just make them stop”.  
“Yeah those kids are just big stupid fucking idiots that ain’t smarter than monkeys that’s being offered fucking bananas or some shit, no wait they are dumber than a bird that knows there’s glass there but still tries to get though the same spot after millions of fucking tries thinking anything will change for some reason”.  
“You’re right, monkeys acts less stupid than they do. They could have really hurt someone feelings if there was more gay students here. How did you take it?”.  
“Well as I said I wanted to punch them, and also throw them into a meat grinder because I was made of complete fucking fury. Not only did they talk about those things, but they also destroyed my fucking morning by waking me up when I’m trying to recover from a concussion and it hurts like fuck”.  
It was true, the pain had become a little worse yesterday evening at the campfire because of all exhaustion, but today it was a little better. A little. It still hurt like a professional wrestler jumped on him non stop.  
“Ouch”.  
“Yeah… So how did you take it?”.  
“As you I also wanted to punch them really hard but I would probably not be strong enough for that. They destroyed my morning”.  
“Well atleast now those fuckers are gone and we have the cabin for ourselves, which means we can fall back asleep and hopefully get that nice sleep that the idiots destroyed and karma will be a bitch to them today. Anyway what time are camp activities starting today?”.  
“After lunch so we have a free morning”.  
“Neat, then we can just skip breakfast and sleep through it”.  
“Yeah, sounds really nice”, John said and yawned again.  
“Yeah Strider plans are nice”, he answered as he yawned. “I just hope any of our idiots called our cabin mates won’t come back and destroy our sleep again because then I will fucking punch someone. The king of beats needs his beauty sleep”.  
“Yeah same. I can get quite grumpy if I don't get enough sleep”.  
“Touché”.  
He yawned again and turned around in bed, closing his eyes and focused all he could on falling back asleep. The covers were warm and comfy and he got more tired every second, and he silently prayed to himself that he would fall asleep in a few seconds, just for once please.  
The prayer didn't go answered.  
He was tired as fuck, getting even more tired every second and he couldn't open his eyes even if he tried, but he still was fucking awake and couldn't fall asleep even though his body begged for it, his fucking luck.  
He started hearing some snoring and figured out it was John. That kid was lucky to fall asleep so fast, Dave almost always struggled with falling asleep even though it felt like he was about to pass out, and those times he didn't struggle he felt asleep in just a matter of seconds. He wished like it was always like that.  
He felt an itch and an urge to turn around to find a more comfortable sleeping position but his body was to exhausted to turn and he just couldn't, so he just yawned and just focused on actually falling asleep. He really needed that sleep and he begged to his body that it would be kind to him for once.  
He yawned once more, and felt his eyes getting even heavier, and finally fell asleep after what felt like an eternity.


	16. Activities Again

Chapter 16: Activities Again

Day 6 out of 28 of camp.

Dave groaned and stretched his limbs carefully as he opened his eyes. He had really needed that nap. He carefully got out of bed and went to the bathroom to get dressed, putting his camp shirt over the binder because it was a camp activity day.  
Purple still wasn't his color.  
When he got out of the bathroom he saw that John was awake,  
“Morning dude”.  
“Morning Dave. Excited for camp?”, John asked as he put his own camp shirt over his head.  
“Well it’s not like I have a choice but hopefully it’ll be somewhat bearable”.  
“I think we’ll have fun with our groups”.  
Oh right the groups, he had forgotten about those, he wouldn't even be able to hang with John at this Percy Jackson ripoff camp. Just his normal fucking luck then.  
“Well if you say so”.  
He opened the cabin door and left together with John, both making their way to the dining hall to eat breakfast, or well it was lunch but this would be their first meal, and Dave put loads of beef on his plate, he really felt the urge for meat today.  
“Meat for breakfast?”, John asked as he put some desert fruit and some sausages on his plate.  
“Well your plate doesn't look much better. You’re also eating meat for God’s sake”.  
“Well but technically you can eat sausage at every meal, and not steak, so I win”.  
“Well whatever floats your boat”, he said and sat down on an empty chair and began eating.  
This camp may be kinda dull sometimes but man they had good food, he had to admit that.  
He took a few more bites and then started wolfing down the food like an animal, he was so hungry and it was good and he didn't care what people thought about his eating habits at the moment, he was fucking starving.  
He finished his meal in just a few minutes and then drank a big glass of water before sitting back and relaxing in his chair as John munched on an apple he had taken as a dessert.  
“So are we just supposed to wait here until they call us into groups again?”, Dave asked, since he had only been on one of the group days earlier.  
“Yeah it’s always like that. They should be here any minute now”, John answered and then took a deep bite of his apple, leaving another big mark were his buck teeth had taken the bite.  
“Okay dude. Let’s just sit back and relax while we still have a chance before we are thrown into camp activities aka legal child labor stuff”.  
“Sounds nice. The relaxing part I mean, I don’t want any child labor”.  
“Dude I got that already, no one thinks that child labor is nice, you wouldn't even have to clarify that shit”.  
“Yeah but still. I wanted it to be clear”.  
“I guess I get your point, we are in deadass Texas after all so who knows with all those close minded peeps everywhere”.  
“Is Texas really that bad? Would some people actually want that?”.  
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Well we do have nice dudes too but it’s swarming with racism, homophobia and sexism so it’s basically the 50s with smartphones”.  
“Wow that is a lot worse than I though”.  
“Yeah but you sadly get used to it after living here your entire life. Be happy you live in New York”.  
Before John could answer, their conversation was interrupted by Mark shouting so all the campers went quite.  
“Okay kids, you go to your separate groups and you’ll get to know what you’ll do today. Before you go, remember to have fun”.  
Sure, Dave muttered to himself as he stood up and walked to Miranda’s corner together with the other coyotes (he was refusing to say the full name because of how lame it was) and quietly waited for everyone around him to shut their goddamn throats so they could get their info, and stretched his arms a little to pass time.  
After what felt like an eternity, he could finally hear what Miranda was saying.  
“Today we’re all going fishing by the lake. Does that sound fun?”.  
Most kids nodded and smiled and Dave just shrugged.  
He’d never actually been fishing before so maybe this actually wouldn't suck that much.  
The group of kids followed Miranda out of the hall and she lead them to a shed and as she unlocked it she told them to take a rod, a bucket and some bait each and that they could go and fish wherever they wanted around the lake, and as most kids walked away he just stood there around wondering where to go?  
“Hey wanna come to the bridge with me?”, he heard someone ask and the first thing he saw was white fluffy dog ears, Jade.  
“Well sure, sounds cool”, he said and followed her footsteps as they came closer to the lake bridge and sat down on the edge as they started preparing the rods.  
“So you’ve been finishing before?”.  
“Nah. And you?”.  
“A few times when I was younger, me and my cousin did it a few times before I moved to the pacific coastline. I kinda liked it”.  
“Wait you live on Hawaii or some shit?”.  
“Not Hawaii, a deserted island near Hawaii that you can only get to by boat, I must say it was a mess to get here, and I kinda miss my dog, he’s home alone and all”.  
“Wait your parents are in Texas too?”.  
“No they aren’t. Grandpa’s dead-ish so it’s mostly me and Bec on the island, together with internet connections and private boats that made it possible for me to get to a camp to meet others, and I must say it’s so fun here”.  
Dave could seriously not tell if Jade had just made that up or not, it sounded fake but it was Jade he talked too, and she told it so casually.  
Well atleast then he isn’t the only one with a weird family, he thought to himself as he put a worm on the hook and threw the rod out into the water.  
“So tell me about your family”.  
“It’s always been me and my bro, we live in an apartment in the middle of Austin and we do totally cool and ironic stuff all time”.  
“That sounds nice. Anyway I know that you know Karkat, but who’s the black haired kid you always hang around? Is he cool?”.  
“His name’s John and yeah he’s cool, for a nerd atleast. You should totally get introduced to each other, he liked a few anime series, mostly the sci-fi but you get the point”.  
“That would be awesome, I would really like to get to know him, he sounds like a nice dude and since you are he must be too… look I think got a fish!”.  
“Niiice. Hook it in”.  
“Trying, but oh gosh it’s fighting back”.  
“Try dragging a little harder, show it who’s the boss”.  
“I’m the boss!”, she shouted and then it happened.  
He saw the fish fiercely moving around in the hook, trying to get back to the water.  
“Fuck that things atleast a feet. It’s huge, or atleast that says the never fished before in his life dude for questions”.


	17. Return to the Falls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rap used in this chapter is borrowed from the actual webcomic, when Dave and Tavros rap against each other.  
> I plan to introduce more of Jade as the chapters progress and also Rose so all the betas get to know each other, and Dave will also become more acquainted with the “trolls” and a few new people to mix things up so it’s not just Dave and John doing the same things repeated through every chapter.  
> And, I finally learned how to actually spell hammock, praise me (okay don’t praise me but let me laugh).

Chapter 17: Return to the Falls

Day 6 out of 28 of camp.

“Man we sure got a few nice fishes”, Dave said as he looked into the buckets, he had gotten three, one of which was kinda huge, and Jade had caught four, two of them being over a feet.  
“Yeah they’re nice, fishing is fun”.  
“I agree”. Dave had actually enjoyed the past hours, fishing was kinda relaxing and Jade was a nice company, he really had to introduce her to John so they could do less boring stuff at camp together.  
Their small chat about fish continued for a few minutes until they heard Miranda shout louder than he thought was possible.  
“Okay coyote kids time to put the fish back in the water and then you end!”.  
“Shit that was loud, does this camp own a megaphone or something?”.  
“Yeah they do, they used it a few days ago, but I guess you were still in bed then”.  
“Yeah and okay cool, imagine what you could do if you got a grip of that megaphone, some perfect rap beats shouted to the entire camp”.  
“That would actually be cool”.  
“You get, first I would start with some classic N.W.A and then maybe some Watsky, but not Eminem, too many peeps know about him, too mainstream for getting newcomers into the fucking art that is rap”.  
“I’m not really a fan of rap but would totally listen to you, I bet you’re good at it”.  
“Nice, I’m positive that you would enjoy my awesome beats, no irony included for once”.  
“Sure, maybe you could rap some lines”.  
“Sure, what do you wanna hear? Freestyle or some already excisting song?”.  
“Freestyle sounds cool”.  
“Sure dude, just give me a beat”, he said and showed her how to beatbox properly before he began rapping.  
“Bro look in my eyes   
That twinkle   
That be DEVOTION you herniated pro wrestlers sweaty purple taint  Sparklin like a visit from your fairy fuckin godmother  Shit be PURE AND TRUE  Thats what you see  A kaleidoscopic supernova of all your hopes and dreams all swishin together  Radially effevescing arms of more little boy peckers than you can imagine  Turning out insane corkscrew haymakers of a billion dancing vienna sausages strong  This is how we do this  This shits more real than kraft mayo”  
He smirked and stopped rapping, putting his shades in place to look cool.  
“That was kinda cool, but why kraft mayo?”.  
“Because it needs to be an ironic fucking masterpiece that would make God cry with disappointment while getting nostalgic over cartoons or something”.  
“Okay I guess that kinda make sense”.  
“You bet, let’s get out of this place now when we can”.  
They walked away from the lake, into the center of camp and Dave spotted John in the distance.  
“Hey Dave!”, he heard him shout from far away and began sprinting.  
“Sup dude”.  
“Hi”.  
“Jade this is John, John this is Jade. She’s pretty cool and I’m sure you have things in common”.  
“Nice to meet you”, John said and took her hand.  
“Same, it’s so nice to meet other kids my age”.  
“You live far away?”.  
“Kinda”.  
“Cool. So what did your group do? We were canoeing”.  
“Fishing, and you should really hear Dave rap, he really impressed me”.  
“Meh it was nothing, just a quick freestyle mix”.  
“No it was totally awesome. It was weird but awesome lyrics and it just fit”.  
“Dave now I really wanna hear you rap”, John said.  
“One day Egbert, but I want to be in the perfect freestyle mood before I drop my beats, I want to fucking blow you away with my awesomeness”.  
“Well you sure are confident today”, John said and grinned a little, making his teeth visible. “So what do you wanna do now? We’re free for the rest of the day and dinner isn't until a few hoyrs”.  
“Well maybe the waterfall”, Dave heard himself there. “We never actually went there yesterday and that would be kinda neat”.  
“What waterfall?”, Jade asked.  
“Dude we gotta show you, it’s fucking amazing, get some swim clothes and we meet here in five”.  
Dave stayed at the same place while John and Jade raced to their cabins to get their swimwear, he wasn't gonna swim for obvious reasons so why walk over to the cabin? That was just unnecessary, but he did look forward to relaxing in the hammoc.  
He yawned and looked up into the bright dazzling sky, it was a little cloudy but it was extremely hot and the sun shining blinded him for a second, it was the same shearer like it was 90 percent of the year in Texas.  
As he stood there alone and waited in silence for his friends he became jealous of Jade and John, they would be able to swim as much as then want and escape the summer heat without problem when he had to just look at them while sweating in the neverending fucking heat, he wanted to swim and float around in cool water so badly. Well he could always dream.  
One day...  
After a while he could see the silhouettes of John and Jade in the distance, and he just nodded when they came close and he joined in on the walking.  
“So can someone tell me more about that waterfall thing now?”, Jade asked.  
“It’s a really cool lake with a waterfall in the woods and behind the falls there’s bushes and we have put my hammock there”.  
“Wow that sounds nice, how far away is it?”.  
“Not too far, we'll be there in like ten minutes if we walk fast, right Dave?”, John asked and yawned as he stretched his arms behind his back.  
“Yeah, John’s right”.  
Soon Dave heard the quite sound of drizzling water together with the constant bird singing around all of camp, and the waterfall came into view. Like last time the like was sparkling like clear water, almost like a silver stream placed together with the bright green grass and the radiant colored wildflowers around.  
“This place is so cool!”, Jade shouted as she and John took of their clothes, revealing their swimwear and the raced to the water while Dave sat down in the grass.  
“Are you gonna swim?”, Jade asked.  
“Nah, not much for water. I’ll just lay here or maybe go to the hammock later, it’s way better than swimming”.  
He wish he actually meant that and actually had a choice wherever to swim or not.  
“Okay but if you change your mind you can just jump in with your boxers, I won’t mind and I’m pretty sure Jade wouldn’t”, John said.  
“I wouldn't mind at all, it would just be fun if we all swam, but it’s your choice”.  
“Pass”.  
“Okay suit yourself mr rap god”.  
“Yeah it’s pretty comfy down here on the ground and you don’t get wet, it’s a win win with Strider style”.  
“Well let’s see if this lives up to your Strider style”, John said and the next second he felt water splashing onto him.  
“Hey don’t splash, my phone’s in my pocket!”, he said between laughter, and he felt another splash of cool relaxing but annoying water hit his face. “Hey stop that you two!”.  
“Make us”, he heard Jade say and they all three broke out in a loud laughter:  
This was actually kinda nice.


	18. Holla Rap Holla

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't rap

Chapter 18: Holla Rap Holla

Day 6 out of 28 of camp.

He listened to all the laughing and splashing, mixing together with the dripping water from the falls and he yawned again as he layed and relaxed in the hammock all by himself. Back here it wasn’t quite as hot as right beside the small lake, and John’s hammock was just comfy as hell. He had to go here with John more often, and Jade, that girl is pretty cool and melted into his and John’s “friend group” or whatever to call it pretty well. He couldn't believe that he actually had made two friends that were nice descent people that also had cool interest. He’d been trying for years in Austin to make friends and it took him 6 days to make two here at camp, plus those few acquaintances he had.  
If it only was this easy outside of summer camp, and even though camp still sucked (because he had to keep that view to fit his weird Strider personality), it sucked less than he thought and could actually enjoy a few moments. Or a lot of them.  
But yeah camp still sucked if Dirk asked him.  
He took up his phone and checked his Instagram (that he used for ironic purposes only) to waste some time, and also put on some jams on low volume so only he could hear them. As he pressed shuffle he was greater with the line “Climbing out the backdoor, didn’t leave a mark. No one knows it’s you, Miss Jackson”.  
So apparently his phone wanted him to listen to P!ATD, well he wasn’t complaining, it was an okay song and a really nice time waster.  
He opened the notification app and opened and empty side, he had some rap inspiration while he heard his friends playing in the water. He started typing, the lyrics already sitting inside his head.

  
_This is for you dog girl_   
_The return of the motherfucking mayo_   
_Raising from the depth of hell like Care Bears_   
_Shit better be pure and true_   
_Gonna drop the biggest bomb hit_   
_Planet fucking Jupiter would flee_   
_Because the home economic can’t even find a fucking price while their soggy asses overwork_   
_Don’t make me quote some overused meme_   
_This is Strider’s own beat mixed like a perfect PB &J_   
_The whole goddamn place will be set on fire_   
_As my ironic supernovic deadass Texas ass shows my beats_   
_Much stronger than a supermarket on fucking Black Friday_   
_Look into my eyes Johnny boy_   
_And get down and bow_   
_And imagine_   
_The USA president losing his job_   
_Because of expired apple juice and shit_   
_Holla_

  
The lyrics was so ironic so he cringed, which meant it was a perfect addition to his collection of endless singing memes, or masterpieces in other words.   
The rap god had done it again, and he was proud, he would totally have to show it to John and Jade, but later when it was completely finished, he wanted a lot more sentences. He loved to making long ironic raps that confused the shit out of people and seemed to be never ending as they continued minute after minute. In other words, he loved to make people confused, dig the beats and make them suffer all at once. That was actually one of the only things he was actually good at.  
As he was finished for the moment, he closed the app and also the phone, just laying back and relaxed for a while. Sleep was really nice, especially when you had a constantly bruised chest (yes he really needed to do something about his unsafe binding but he didn't know how, because he refused to let people know) and felt extra weak and wimpy because of that. According to his phone it had been 5 pm last time he checked it, so they had time to stay until they had to go back and eat dinner and then have another wonderful campfire with super scary stories (if you were a toddler or something).  
He sure was gonna show them.  
After relaxing for a few more minutes, he got out of the hammock and got out of the small spot, spotting Jade and John in the water playing Marco Polo or something.  
“Yo dudes!”.  
“Hi Dave!”, Jade shouted and waved. “How was the hammock back there?”.  
“Neat as fuck, you should totally try it some day. More comfy than the actual camp bed, extra credit to the Egberts”.  
“Yeah my hammock is really cozy”, John said before diving back into the water, swimming a shirt distance underwater before breaking the surface again. “But this water is even better, perfect way to cool down during a summer day”.  
“Dude if you’re trying to bribe me into the water it ain't gonna work. I don't do water, end up discussion”.  
“Okay it was worth a try. What’s the time anyway?”.  
“Soon 5:15 pm. You two mermaids should totally get out of the water soon so we can head back”, he said as he sat down into the grass. Yep the hammock was definitely softer and on top of that he may get grass stains on his pants but meh. He didn't care, it would always wash off sooner or later, and he has never really been a real fashion addict.  
John and Jade got up and put their clothes on over their swimwear, and Jade strangled her hair to get rid of some water before putting the dog ears on.  
“Okay all welcome to SS John, next destination, camp”, John playfully shouted and began marching like a silly clown or something.  
Oh that silly goofball.  
If he only knew how cute he was right now. His positive attitude and confident grin made Dave to blush slightly, and he could feel his heart beat faster again.  
As he slowly walked with his heads in the clouds and butterflies in all his body, he prayed that the blushing wasn't that visible. Aside from the blushing it was really nice, to feel those feelings, he couldn't explain it, and the back of his mind started to once again hope that John would love him, even though he was different.  
But if he thought about his usual luck John would probably fall in love with someone else, like Jade or something, he was bi so he could fall in love with whoever at camp. Damn why did he introduce John to Jade and vise versa?  
Fuck, what if they really started to develop feelings for each other?  
He just wanted some friends and now he was stuck in a huge ass mess once again, he shouldn't be surprised by now because of all messes but still..  
Hopefully they wouldn't fall for each other though, and just remain weird goofy friends with weird anime taste and stuff like that.  
“Look there’s camp”, Jade said and pointed at the end of the forest, where cabins and the lake were visible further down and children were everywhere doing random stuff.  
“Well it looks like usual so I bet no one missed us. But they should have, because their king of beats was gone”.  
“Yeah your beats really are cool”, John said.  
“You haven't even heard me rap yet you nerd”.  
“Well I sure can't wait”.  
“Pft sure goofball. I’m gonna go and relax for a bit. See you at the campfire later, I’m gonna scare so weaklings again”, he said and waved to his friends as he started to walk towards his cabin.  
“See you”  
“See you later”


	19. Cabin Morning

Chapter 19: Cabin Morning

Day 7 out of 28 out of camp.

The gentle touch that made all of his body smile, a pair of soft lips pressed against his, his whole body exploding like a huge firework. He felt more in love than ever before and more than he thought was possible, and he knew the person he was kissing was his beloved Egderp. His heart was beating faster than humanly possible, and it felt like they were levitating as they continued to embrace closely, and gave each other another kiss.

……

“Good morning fuckers of cabin 11!”, was the first thing Dave heard as he quickly sat up in bed and opened his eyes faster than he thought was possible. The same fucking idiot that had woken him up yesterday did it fucking again. They were fifteen for gods sake why was no one here mature, or well had some damn courtesy atleast. It ain’t okay to wake up a Texas man in the middle of his beauty sleep.  
“Can you just fuck off for real man? What are you even doing? You act like a five year old on too much candy. It wasn't fun the first time, go and eat some glue or something else mr toddler”, Dave angrily said, making his voice louder and deeper than usual, which even surprised himself for a moment.  
“Yeah stop”.  
“Stop it dude, I’m so tired”.  
“You ain’t funny”.  
“Just fuck off already. Let us sleep”.  
Well looks like everyone in this cabin was on Dave’s side, they seemed to also understand the love that was sleep.  
“Why would I?”.  
“Because atleast I thought you were a decent human being but nope you’re a stupid ass dimshit with the mental age of an apple”, Dave answered.  
“You guys are just fucking gay. I do whatever the fuck I want, got that pussies?”.  
“If someone here is a pussy it’s you. You fucking screamed like a five year old girl at the campfire yesterday, do I even have to remember everyone here about it, I’m sure everyone will remember that for life. I fucking told you about pink hands, a damn story for five years old. It looked like you crapped your damn pants or some shit”, Dave said.  
“Fuck off”.  
“Naw is the lil baby crying for mommy”.  
He got all the others to laugh after that comment, but he didn’t know how he felt about that. He felt a little like a bully after all those years he faced bullying himself, but he wanted this dude to stop waking them up and to stop offending them all and trying to boss around.  
“Wanna fucking fight?”, the boy stood up and held one hand over the other and punched. Dave quickly dodged the punch as he sat on his bed, jumped up to the side and punched the boy in the face as a matter of self defense and then felt a sharp pain around his eyes a few seconds later, he had been punched in the eyes and his reflexes made him quickly punch back and also deliver a kick, and then he quickly got back under the covers so no one would notice his small chest.  
“Give up dude. Everyone else here’s on my side. Stop fucking disturb us. Got that?”, Dave asked as he tried to not think about his eye and tried to make it look like he was unfazed by the pain. Damn that boy sure knew hot to get a good hit.  
“Whatever”, the boy said and quickly started to change clothes and got out of the cabin, and as soon as the door closed, others got up.  
“Dude you punched Justin in the face. Thanks”, a tall dude with black hair and medium skin said.  
“Well no prob I guess, I just got tired of him waking us up, need my beauty sleep you know”.  
“Sleep is love”, John said in response before anyone could say anything themselves.  
“You got it, sleep is the love child of our entire fucking world and the fucked who invented it should be praised with all our resources”, Dave answered before letting out a big yawn.  
After that sentence, everyone in the cabin began to change, Dave taking his clothes and changing in the bathroom. He once again wore the purple cabin shirt because it was an activity day again. Thankfully they would get two days off from scheduled activities after this so no more purple shirt for two whole days, his hoodie was way better.  
He opened the bathroom door and only John was in the cabin, damn how fast did these boys get ready in the morning?   
“Ready for breakfast?”, he asked and John nodded. Dave felt himself getting warm when he exited the cabin. John’s smile.  
Damn it Dave.  
He knew that he would have to tell John sooner or later because this was starting to become impossible to hide. He was just so darn cute and got even cuter every second it seemed.  
“Sure am! I’m so hungry for pancakes”.  
“What’s with you and pancakes?”.  
“They're so tasty, the best food in the entire world”.  
“If you say so”, Dave answered as they walked into the dining hall. Maybe he also would take pancakes today? He seemed to have a small craving for them now when John mentioned it, so why not? He put a few huge pancakes on his plate and covered them in syrup while John did the same, and they sat down at an almost empty table. Dave just zooned out and ignored the others while only focusing on John.  
“So any idea on what the camp will make us do today?”.  
“I don’t know what, but I heard rumors that all campers would do something, not just the groups”.  
“Well okay. What the fuck will be even be doing then? We’re about one hundred campers for god’s sake”.  
“Well no matter what it is I think it’ll be cool, it must be hard to plan something for so many people”.  
“Okay sure, credits to the leaders”.  
He stopped talking and took a big bite out of his pancakes, he really understood why John liked them so much. They were much better than the average pancake.  
“Hello all campers!”, Dave heard Jessie shout and all campers became quite to listen to what she had to say. “Today will be a really interesting day at camp, because we are gonna play Capture the flag!”,


	20. Capture the Flag

Chapter 20: Capture the Flag

Day 7 out of 28 of camp.

Capture the flag?   
Really?   
Was this camp trying to be a Percy Jackson ripoff or something? Because it seemed it was really trying hard according to all that basic stuff John had told him. Well if they would use plastic weapons and fake armor and shit like kittens dressed as monsters he would just give up, because c’mon camp be original for once. This ain’t “Camp fanfiction coming true” or some other weird shit.  
“We’re gonna group you up in two big teams, you’ll be around fifty in each and be given an orange or blue ribbon. We’re gonna play over by the meadow and in the forest, but not too deep in, we don’t want anyone to get lost, and each team will put their flags on a place were it can be visible for others once they’re a bit far into the opposing team’s area. You can tag others by touching them on their back when they’re in your area and on their area too if they have your flag, and when you get tagged you sit on the ground because you’re “dead” and the winner is either the group who first gets the flag on their side to their own, or the group that eliminated all members of the other team. Understood?”.  
Dave nodded in unison with most of the other campers, some muttering stuff like “yeah” or “kinda”, but Dave was one of the quite ones that only nodded.  
So atleast they weren't gonna become completely ripoff trash or stuff, but the fact that he would have to run a lot while wearing a binder.  
Fucking perfect as usual…  
Maybe he should just get tagged in the beginning of the game so he could sit down and watch the rest of it? That was a really tempting idea but who knew what they would say if he was one of the first who got tagged?  
You never knew with teens, Dave sure knew that a lot.  
Well he guess he would just run around until he simply got tagged.  
“Now we’ll group you up into two teams, you will either get an orange or a blue ribbon that you can put on you, and once everyone has a ribbon we’ll march up to the middle of the meadow and then you will have five minutes on you too put your flag somewhere in the forest before you’re allowed to run to the other side”.  
Okay that seemed simple enough. He could do this.   
Probably.  
All camp leaders walked around and randomly gave them colored ribbons, and Dave got a blue one after a while, and to his luck John was also blue, and even Jade. Atleast he wouldn't be alone during this lousy activity, so it might suck a little less than playing with only strangers and people that he only had seen like once for like twenty seconds.  
Soon everyone had either a blue or an orange ribbon, and the casual chatting became an octave louder, people goofing around with their friends as stereotypical teens, Dave included. He, Jade and John talked about how this game was such a ripoff to many different camp series, but they got interrupted by Ashton shouting, telling the campers to leave the building.  
All campers started to move in (somewhat) unison and left the dining all, a few running and jumping and a few (like Dave) took their sweet time walking slowly, because well they had all the time in the world. Three more weeks at this place actually, so the camp leaders better not force them to hurry. They didn't exactly have a meeting with the president in five minutes or whatever.  
After another minute or two they got to the meadow and Jessie blew her whistle and shouted at the top of her lungs.  
“Okay guys you have five minutes to hide your flags! Begin!”.  
Dave jogged to thr left part of the meadow with the rest of his team, entering the forest. It looked quite weird with fifty teens jogging together with almost no space between them.  
Yeah he wanted his fucking space back.  
They all separated a little, and they soon arrived at a huge moss covered stone surrounded by a few other stones that were a bit pointy, and the summer sun shined through the leaves of the tall trees.  
“Hey let’s put the flag up there!”, someone shouted.  
“Cool”.  
“Good idea”.  
“Yeah that’ll do. I bet those fuckers can’t climb up there”.  
“Stop swearing”.  
“Fuck off!”.  
The usual bickering continued for another minute, but then a girl with short dark hair took the flag, climbed u the rock and put the flag into the moss and took charge of everything.  
“Okay we need a few flankers and a good defense hidden in the area. If they see all of us here they’ll figure out where the flag is in less than a second. We also need lots of people who can run into the other area and try finding their flag, and most important, don’t get tagged”.  
Dave chose to become a defender, because that probably meant less running. He stood there, waiting for once of the leaders to shout in their megaphone or something to tell them to begin.  
After a few breaths, he heard the loud voice of Jessie telling them to begin,  
“ATTACK!”, John and Jade along with about twenty others screamed as they started running out of the woods and into the meadow, to try crossing the other team’s border and go into their part of the forest. So he guessed he was left without them at the flag, but well he would see them again in like what, 10 minutes?  
He walked a few meters backwards and hid behind a large tree, time to wait he guessed.  
He heard shouting and running from far away, from all directions. Some of the screams came further away and some came closer.  
“Tag them!”, someone shouted as three kids from the opposing team came sprinting, trying to find the flag. Dave jumped out of his hiding like a few others too, and they sprinted as fast as he could to the enemies, giving all his power, jumped and tagged one.  
Once the enemy sat down he took a few breaths.  
The fuck had he just done?  
Running like that made him barely being able to breathe and he saw a few black dots that he was sure wasn't supposed to be there, he just had to play the cool hero in shades. Ugh.  
Atleast he had somehow made an effort to the team so that they couldn't complain on him if they lost, that’s something.  
“Nice dude!”, someone shouted as they went back to their hiding places, Dave being a little dizzy.  
And did he have time to catch is breath?  
No fucking way because less than a minute later another dude was running in their territory and he had to once again sprint out of his hideout and tag the enemy. Now everything started to slowly spin, he had to relax, he couldn't overwork himself or he would faint or some shit and people would wanna find out why, which would probably mean binder exposure. The fact that he’s been passing for an entire week was a miracle by itself.  
He slowly walked back to his hiding place once again, and he just stood there, trying to breathe, which worked for like half a minute before multiple people ran into their area again. After that chase Dave was exhausted to the brink, his head spinning more while it started to ache, and the black dots became bigger, and he no longer heard words, only screams.   
He’ve had enough and he was sure he would die if he had to run again, so instead of walking back to his point, he started to walk out of the forest and into the meadow. It looked like a full on battle field without weapons, people running and tagging each other everywhere.  
He slowly walked closer and closer to the enemy side as his eyes became a bit heavy, and he got tagged when he had set his first foot in enemy territory.  
Finally and excuse to relax.  
He literally threw himself into the ground and laid in the soft green grass, it was so comfy and he wanted to lay there forever.  
Some time passed with people screaming and running around him, but he understood nothing about what was going on except that. Only the screaming.  
The loud fucking screaming.  
Would it ever end?  
He just wanted to…  
Sleep a little…  
The luck wasn’t in his favor, because the screaming became more intense as the minutes passed by, and soon a victory cry from one of the teams was heard, he didn't know which because he was too tired to know, he just wanted to continue to lay down in the grass, but he heard some mumbling that became stronger and stronger…  
“Dave”.  
“Dave”.  
“DAVE”.  
“I’m here!”, he replied and raised his head, almost making him throw up in the process. It was John.  
“Man can you get that we won? We were so lucky!”.  
“Yeah yeah”...  
Okay so they had apperantly won. Good he guessed, but he really shouldn't have opened his mouth to speak, his dizzyness became worse.  
“Hey are you okay?”.  
He just shook his head as an answer because he really didn't wanna speak more in case he would throw up, and he really hoped that didn’t happen because they he would only make a huge fucking fool out of himself and all the camp would make the rest of his stay miserable as fuck.  
“Do you want me to take you to the cabin?”.  
He once again nodded slowly, and the next second he felt John’s warm hand touch his, and some sparks started to fly, mixing with the nausea, and he felt himself on his two legs, John had helped him to stand up.  
They started to walk slowly, John’s arms around Dave’s body all the time, helping him to to fall onto the ground. A beep in his ears became stronger for every second, and he know longer could hear what John was saying at all, not even mumbling.  
After what felt like an eternity in hell, they got inside of the cabin and Dave quickly got in his bed, and crawled under his covers with all his body, to use the last of his powers to crawl out of his binder without anyone noticing if there were others in the cabin, he honestly didn't know if John had left or not, and this intense thing made him to burp, almost throwing up, he felt twice as bad as he had been feeling out on the field.  
Fucking perfect.  
Once it was off he closed his eyes and was out in less than a second.


	21. Nightmares and Apps at Cabin 11

Chapter 21: Nightmares and Apps at Cabin 11

Day 8 out of 28 of camp.

Everything was spinning.  
Someone was screaming.  
Everything was black and he didn't know what was up and what was down, and it started to ring even more painfully in his ears, which made him wanna scream at the top of his lungs, so painful.  
He heard himself groan and tried to move around, but as always he was stuck, he had no right in whenever he should be able to move or not and simply had to trust the wind not to throw him into a brick wall or something.  
Fucking shit.  
Always when he tried to do stuff he failed, and this just proved it.  
What even happened?  
He had a vague memory of screams and running in the back of his head, and the feeling of complete exhaustion, worse than anything he had experienced before.  
Was this real?  
Real?  
The nausea became twice as strong in just a second, and he now felt the usual feeling of accelerated falling, while a countless of different voices chattered so it became unbearable. He wanted to tear his ears off, andhe would have done it if he was actually able to move his stupid hands..  
And before he knew it, he made an impact, the strongest one yet.

……

“Agh!”.  
He woke up, shouting and sitting up straight in bed. He had a small headache and his ears ringed, but it was nowhere as bad as yesterday.  
What even happened today, yesterday? What day was it even? He only remembered the pain.  
John, screaming, running, chasing something red.  
Oh right it was Capture the flag that had happened. He groaned once he realized it, and made a mental note to himself to never try to run like Usain fucking Bolt while wearing a binder ever again, it had been so uncomfortable so Dave had thought that he would actually die for a second. Thank god that he had managed to crawl out of it before falling asleep, who knows what could have happened? Probably something like broken ribs and destroyed lungs or something similar, he didn't wanna think about that.  
He blinked a few times before stretching his arms behind his head while yawning, trying to wake up his body a little more. His joints was a little sore from the run, but he would have to get used to it, it would soon hopefully disappear.  
He slowly took out his phone from underthe pillow and pressed the home button, showing the lockscreen of him and bro taking an ironic lame selfie with caps with anime cat ears on them (don’t judge he didn't have many friends back then, and he just loved the irony), and the time, which currently was 8:16 am.  
Shit.  
It was breakfast time.  
Which meant he had been out for almost a day.  
Twenty four fucking hours.  
Twenty.  
Four.  
Fucking.  
Hours.  
Now he really felt lucky that he had got the binder off before he passed out of exhaustion.  
How did his body even manage to sleep such a long time, this was MUCH longer than when he got that concussion a few days ago… wait a minute.  
No wonder he felt tired so fast yesterday, except the binder he still was recovering from that fucking concussion, making him even more weak than usual.  
Fucking hell.  
How could he have been so fucking stupid?  
He gave himself a huge facepalm and groaned as he wrote the password to his phone and started going through his apps, liking a few things on Tumblr, making a new ironic coolass tweet on Twitter and liked some memes, checked his Instagram and liked his bro’s newest pic, which was him looking cool by a cactus, and at last checking his pesterchum for new messages.  
No new onew yet, but he saw that bro was online, or well atleast his phone was on, and he himself was bored out of his mind, so he gave it a try.

……

8:22 AM

turntechGodhead started pestering timaeusTestified

TG: sup bro  
TG: u there  
TG: im bored so you better fucking answer or youll have to endure the endless torture that is spamming ballet dancers photoshopped into kraft mayo jars or some fucking shit  
TT: Woah woah lil bro, no need for mayo dancing.  
TT: I’m here.  
TG: good  
TG: now tell me more about your fucked up porn project to make me less bored  
TT: Well sure, if you wanna hear. The project’s going good, rad as fuck. We managed to film three more films that’s are total 10/10s, inspired by Stranger Things, perfect Oscar material.  
TG: the actual fuck  
TG: how did a series about a monsters and fucked governments  
TT: I promise no children were involved, something like that is just say.  
TG: that is good to hear atleast  
TG: youre a less fucked up human than usual  
TG: and well even smuppet porn have a bigger chance of winning on than leo so i guess everything is possible in this fucked world  
TT: Heh.  
TT: So how’s camp?  
TG: pretty good except that it tries to be a fucking percy jackson ripoff  
TG: we played capture the flag yesterday  
TT: How did it go?  
TG: slaughtered the other team like no other  
TG: we won the brutal match by fighting to the death  
TT: Cool. What’s happening today?  
TG: free day  
TG: get to relax all day and shit  
TG: im so fucking tired so i dont think ill leave the bed  
TT: Okay cool. Hope you’ll have fun while sitting on your ass and doing absolutely nothing.  
TG: i will  
TG: see you bro

8:43 AM

turntechGodhead stopped pestering timaeusTestified

……

He sighed, put his headphones on and began listening to music, a random song by Twenty One Pilots began playing, and he put his phone on the side.  
Better enjoy that peace and quite while it lasts, the others could come back to the cabin any second. Hopefully it would take atleast a few more songs, because he wanted to not hear their fucking hormone filled rage and bickering for atleast a minute.  
He just layed there, relaxing by thinking about future events.  
How the actual fuck was he gonna survive the rest of the camp?  
He had already gotten himself outburned twice in a week, he swore he would just be a corpse when the day bro’s coming to pick him up from camp. His chest was constantly aching because of the overuse of binding, and he was afraid he might have fractured a rib or something, which made him even more anxious because no fucking way he would walk around without it in camp.  
He was tired of all that shouting and taunting that he always got when people found out, and for once he just wanted a normal time like a normal cis boy. He just wanted everything to not fuck up his life entirely for once.  
A few more minutes passed, and as he was in the middle of a Watsky song he heard the cabin door open and saw messy black hair and buckteeth, John.  
“Hey you’re awake”.  
“What does it look like? No I’m sleeping”.  
“You were out for a day, are you okay?”.  
“Nah not fully, but better than yesterday, my lazy ass wanna lay here for a few hours more, maybe I’ll come up with some new rad rap beats”.  
“Okay cool. Me and Jade were gonna go and try to get others to play baseball with us”.  
“I didn't know mister buckteeth liked baseball, the manliest and most American sports alongside figure skating, that is true art”.  
“Yeah I’ve always like baseball, may not be the best but I just love the game. When you feel better we could play”.  
“Sure, sounds neat”.  
“Okay I’ll be leaving but will be back after lunch, if you decide to move I’ll be at the meadow. I don’t know why you feel this sick but I hope it’ll get better”.  
“Thanks dude, see ya later and do some homeruns for daddy”.  
“Heh sure I will”.


	22. Bracelet Smalltalk

Chapter 22: Bracelet Smalltalk

Day 9 out of 28 of camp.

Let’s just summarize the previous day because no one wanna hear more about that deadass boring day.  
Dave never got out of bed because of how he felt, and used his phone the entire day looking at pathetic memes and John visited a few times, bringing food and talked for a while.  
Aka a boring uneventful day that nobody wants more details about, because the only good thing that happened was that his back didn't hurt as much anymore because a longer break from his binder.  
But today would be a little different.  
Dave woke up by the sound of the other boys talking, and he heard that they talked about some activities, so apperantly it was an activity day.  
He quickly got out of bed, stretched his limbs a little after such a long time not moving around and went to the bathroom to change and put his purple tshirt on.  
He would be happy with any activity except something that involved running.  
He got out of the bathroom and nodded at John, who was in the middle of getting his shirt over his head.  
“Sup derp. Ready for breakfast?”, he asked and John nodded back.  
“Sure am. I could eat a horse”.  
“Same man, I’m hungry like a fucking wolf, gonna eat some nice sausages for breakfast so I get my meat intake for today”.  
“Nice. I’m feeling for pancakes”.  
“Again? Seriously what’s with you and those things?”.  
“Hey don’t judge me! They’re just so good, the best food ever”.  
“Nope, that is blueberry pie. It’s God’s fucking gift to the people. Nothing tops a fresh still warm Texas blueberry pie. It’s fucking heaven in a bite, so fucking juicy”.  
“I’m not that much for blueberry pies”.  
“You mean New York pies, I’m talking about a real fucking Texas pie, you gotta taste one before camp’s over”.  
“Okay sure, sounds cool”.  
“Yeah”, he answered as he opened the door to the dining hall and let John walk in before him and then quickly took a plate and filled it with sausages, some eggs and toast and they sat down at a table, starting to devour their food.  
As they were in the middle of a conversation about Percy Jackson (John tried to convince Dave to read the books again), they saw a pair of fake dog ears, Jade had entered the dining hall and once she had gotten her food, she sat down beside them.  
“Hi guys”.  
“Sup”.  
“Hey”.  
“Are you excited about today?”, she asked as she took a bite out of her PB&J sandwich.  
“Dunno yet, will see once we get to know what we’ll do”.  
“Sounds reasonable”, John said before trying to put an entire pancake in his mouth, failing.  
“Dude calm down, are you trying to suffocate yourself?”.  
“Not really”, he said as he coughed. “They’re just so tasty and I wanna eat everything now. I love pancakes”.  
“I know that dude but seriously calm down. No one will take the fucking food from you, we ain’t wild animals”.  
“Well I would probably do the same if it was pumpkin”, he heard Jade say.  
“Pumpkin pie or juice or something?”.  
“No. Just raw pumpkins, the insides are so tasty. I have a whole farm with countless of pumpkins back on my island, both on my greenhouse and outside of the house”.  
“Cool. Your life sound so much more interesting than yours, we’re just city kids while you’re like Indiana fucking Jones”.  
“Yeah but it gets kinda lonely after a while”.  
“You could totally come and visit New York any day you want”, John said.  
“Yeah girl, you’re welcome back to deadass Texas anytime if you wanna visit me and my bro”.  
“That would be awesome, thanks guys”.  
“No prob Bob”, John said.  
“Heh thanks, I mean, it’s Lapis”.  
“Omg you got my reference?!?”.  
“Sure did man. It’s the best. You should have included Ready Freddy too”.  
“Yes you are so right, we gotta talk about more references”.  
“Okay what the actual fuck are you two talking about?”, Dave asked. He was completely lost and had no idea what they were chattering about, only that it was some kind of fandom.  
“You’ve never watched Steven Universe?”, Hade asked and Dave just shook his head.  
“Nope. Isn’t it that show about gay rocks or something?”.  
“YES THAT’S IT!!!”, both Jade and John shouted in unison.  
“You gotta watch it Dave”.  
“Chill John, you already want me to read eleven fucking books about mythology and now you want me to begin a new series? Take it a lil easy there dude”.  
“Never too many fandoms in your life”, Jade said and giggled.  
“You guys are so fucking trash. But you’re awesome trash”.  
He’d known John for a week and Jade for a couple of days, but they sure were really nice friends. This was so different from living in the city where everyone at school knew about him and tried to make his life miserable. Here at camp it was much more relaxing, both the atmosphere and the people, and he could live as a normal dude. Take away all the running and his cabin mates and you actually had a pretty descent camp. It was much better than he had thought at first anyway.  
The rest of breakfast went fairly normal, and as the other days, it ended with one of the camp leaders getting everyone’s attention, this day it was Ashton.  
“Okay everyone. After a few days tough play, we’re gonna take it easy today. We’re doing activities until lunch and then you’ll be free for the rest of the day, to charge your batteries a little. Today's activity is gonna be making friendship bracelets in your groups, and I can see that some of you are already looking skeptic, but trust me, it’s gonna be fun”.  
Okay friendship bracelets.  
Sounds lame but was way better than running, so it could probably be a kinda nice time waster atleast.  
Like always, the wild animals (aka stupid teens) started chattering and it took a few minutes to get them to shut their mouths, apperantly friendship bracelets were “gay” and worse than death.   
He’d gotten the extreme urge to punch every camper so hard in the face so their noses started to bleed. He may have some slight anger issues that he needed to control, but they would never go so far so that anyone would get brutally wounded, just a little wounded if he had no choice.  
They all got into their separate groups, and left the dining hall too get to separate places around camp where they would be. One group got up to the common room, and Dave’s group went into the assembly building, he had no idea where the other two groups went.  
He quietly sat down on a chair at a table in the corner, and Jade quickly followed. The table was covered in different colored yarns, scissors, beads, string, and different things. Miranda talked to them a little, telling them about the basics if they was gonna braid a bracelet, but Dave didn't care to listen since he was to lazy to braid and would just do a simple bead bracelet, that’s much easier.  
He took a string and took some cool oval shaped beeds that had a blood red color, did and knot and started to work. It was fairly easy, but took a while since he wasn't used too making bracelets.  
He looked over at Jade and had no idea how she did it, it had only been a few minutes and she had come a far bit with braiding her green bracelet. She worked so fast and Dave was sure he had just witnessed her break the laws of physics.  
“Dude how do you do it?”.  
“Do what?”.  
“Breaking motherfucking time and space”.  
“Well braiding is fairly easy once you’ve gotten used to it. I sometimes do it for fun. I could show you if you want”.  
“Pass. I’m to lazy for those shorts of activities, this is much easier”, he said, putting another bead on the string.  
“Okay but if you change your mind just tell me, teaching you to braid would be fun”.  
“So anyway, let’s talk about some random stuff that’s not about braiding”.  
“Sure. There’s something I got to ask you. I’m so curious?”.  
“Do you have a crush on John?”.  
“Wait what???? N...no”.  
“Okay, too bad. I just had to know, you two would look so cute together”, and with that she continued braiding.  
Thank god.  
Dave’s crush had almost been revealed, was it really so fucking obvious?  
He hoped not.  
He just sighed and continued making his bracelet.  
This activity continued for a few hours until lunch, and once the time had passed, Dave had made five beed bracelets in different colors, and also actually braided a red one because he got bored of just putting stuff on strings. It was way harder but Jade had patience enough to teach him, and it was actually kind of relaxing, and now that he knew how to braid bracelets he could use that for ironic purposes.  
He looked over at Jade’s pile of bracelets, there was a ton, all in different colors, both braided and with beads and some even mixed the two styles together.   
Man she sure was good.  
“Okay kids, it’s time for lunch, you’ll get the rest of the day off. Don’t forget your bracelets when you leave”.  
Dave stood up and walked to the dining hall with Jade, waiting for John.


	23. Pro with a Promarker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think this chapter’s silly, I want you to know that I want to show all different sides of Dave, and not focus on the romance 24/7, letting him friendly bond with people and just learn more about his personality by interactions, and get friends that aren't the betas too

  
Chapter 23: Pro with a Promarker

Day 9 out of 28 of camp.

He put some sandwiches on his plate and sat down beside Jade. Their group was the first to get to the dining hall, so now they were just waiting for John.  
Thankfully they didn't have to wait that long, because just a couple of minutes later, he saw their group storm into the hall to get their lunch, and he quickly held his hand up so that John would notice them, which he did.  
Once they all sat down at the same table, John just smiled and showed them both all the bracelets he had made, mainly blue ones.  
“I’m gonna give out some at the end of camp to cool people, like you guys”.  
Dave just nodded while staying silent, he was the cool kid after all, but hearing John saying that made everything so much different.  
John was just John. Cute silly John.  
“Cool, I think I’ll give out some too”, Jade said as she took a bite of her sandwich.  
“Well I guess I’ll do that too”, he said so that he wouldn't look rude or anything. He wasn't really that interested in his bracelets anyway so he could give them away without problem.  
“Nice, I hope I’ll get one”, John said as he took another bite of his grilled cheese. “What do you all wanna do now after lunch?”.  
“No idea dude. Maybe just chill?”.  
“Why just chill?”.  
“Because I’m tired as fuck”.  
“Oh yeah that thing”.  
“Yeah”.  
“Yeah chilling sounds nice”, he heard Jade answer. “I have my promarkers with me and we could draw, I haven't drawn since I got here and I really wanna do it”.  
“Sure why not, sounds neat, I could update my collection of comics”, Dave said.  
“You’re making a comic?”, John asked.  
“Yep. It’s called Sweet bro and hella Jeff and it’s a fucking masterpiece, my lovable child”.  
“Cool, what's it about?”.  
“Irony, stairs and the most cringeworthy material I can make up. It’s gonna be a Hollywood film one day, you bet it”.  
“Nice. We could go to the common room, there’s a few tables there. I’ll meet you there, gonna get my pens first”.  
“Sure”, both he and John said as they went in separate directions, they up to the common room and Jade to her cabin.  
“You said you’re doing a comic, are you good at drawing?”, John asked.  
“Hell no, I fucking suck at it, but that makes the perfect style for my irony, fans are loving it, got 3000 followers on tumblr y’know”.  
“Wow that's cool”.  
“You know it. How's your drawing skills by the way?”.  
“Sort of okay, but I’m not near a pro at all, and I suck at drawing hands”.  
“Who doesn't?”.  
They sat down at a table and waited, and Jade arrived just a few minutes later with a giant bag, and poured out the content on the table.  
“Wow we asked for pens not an ocean”, Dave said as he saw countless of pens and sketch books. “How many of these have you got a million?”.  
“No, it’s actually around three hundred, I want to keep two of each shade just invade one gets dry because deliveries to my island takes a long while, usually a couple of months, and if I’ll be left without meadow green or cool gray 2 for three months again I don’t know what to do because cool gray 3 doesn't blend as good and I had to use the warm gray shade, the warm shade...”.  
Okay what was she even talking about?   
And why was apperantly warm gray deadly?  
He didn't speak drawing so he just shrugged it off as Jade handed them each a sketchbook and told them to take whatever pens they wanted.  
Jade told them she would first sketch and then ink and color it and adviced them to do so too, but Dave declined, he was just gonna make a shifty comic that are meant to look fucked and wrong after all, so some improvisation drawing would give that extra touch.  
He immediately started drawing Sweet bro, and drew a line in the wrong direction, and drew over it, making it look sloppy and bad.  
That is true art in the making right there.  
He drew another panel, adding Jeff, a turkey leg and in the corner of the frame there was a tube of lube, because why the fuck not? This was just an ironic shitty comic and he wanted everyone to cringe so bad so that they considered plucking their eyes out.  
Then of course the famous stairs made their return, and a few other panels full of random shit and lyrics from Toxic by Britney Spears, later, he was finished. It had taken him about half an hour and he was damn proud of this fucking masterpiece, once he’s back home he’ll post it at once, didn't wanna keep his fans waiting. He should use the opportunity when he had profesional drawing gear, it made the drawing look even more shitty since he couldn't use them properly which was obvious, and it made it even more perfect.  
This was the type of shitpost he was filling his Tumblr with.  
He looked over to John, he was in the middle of drawing what looked like a medieval character or something, and John later told him that it was his OC for Dungeons and Dragons, and he began drawing another comic, this time a little longer, and it included some incidents with some wildlife and failing to learn a bear to drive a car, and even more stairs.  
“I got these for you”, Jade suddenly said and gave them each a small colored drawing with lots of details. She had drawn Dave, standing with the lake in the background wearing his camp shirt, his sunglasses shining, the sun also making him hair look white, and him having a small smirk  
Dave loved the drawing and almost shed a tear, he looked so much more masculine on it than in reality, and he saw that in the corner it was written in small letters “To the cool dude/ Jade ^w^.  
“Wow Jade these are great”, he heard John say and Dave looked at the drawing he had got. He was also wearing his camp shirt, and his buckteeth was showing as he had a huge smile on his face. His dark hair was messy as always and a part of his glasses reflected the sun, and Jade had written “To the Egbert/ Jade :^)” on it . She was such a talented artist. Dave himself couldn't draw for shit, not even stick figures to be honest, it was a wonder he could even do his comics. He just wondered how Jade was able to do two drawings that was so detailed in like 20 minutes.  
Witchcraft.  
It had to be witchcraft.  
“Yeah these are fucking amazing, how did you do that? All I did was these shitty comics”.  
“They’re actually really good for being the first time someone draws with promarkers”.  
“You’re just making that up”.  
“Kinda… But seriously I have never seen a comic like that and it sounds really interesting, I totally want your Tumblr later so I can follow”.  
“Yeah I want the Tumblr too, I’ll get an account there just to follow it”.  
“Sure dudes”, Dave said, as he smirked a little before they all continued to draw for a little longer.  
This afternoon was actually really nice...

 


	24. Just Another Afternoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Porly written I know but it'll lead up to something.

  
Chapter 24: Just Another Afternoon

Day 9 out of 28 of camp.

After they had cleaned up after them and put all promarkers and sketchbooks in Jade’s big bag after making sure all pens were screwed on hard (apparently Jade would kill them if a pen dried out thanks to them, she really guarded those things like her children), they left the common room and parted ways, they were all tired and needed some rest for a few hours before the campfire, especially Dave. He was so tired and just wanted to sleep a little, maybe text with bro and also spend time with John, and maybe he would actually talk to others the next day. Maybe he could see if fate wanted to give him more friends since he was already so lucky. And yeah if he layed in bed he could have some binder free hours because it hurt like hell as usual.  
As they got inside their cabin, Dave took a pin (he always had pins with him and he didn't know why, Bro’s idea) and pinned the drawing Jade had made of him over his bed.  
He just loved the drawing, and it made a great addition to the plain empty walls, he should probably decorate more, maybe even put something on his “roof” aka John’s mattress that was over him. Maybe some real lights to stimulate the roof effects, Christmas lights maybe. That would just make everything more weird which meant more perfect.  
“Hey Dave do you have more pins? I saw you pin up your drawing and it looks like a nice idea and I would love to do it too”.  
“Sure dude, here you go”, he said and took up another pin from his bag, and just a few seconds later John had pinned his drawing to the wall.  
“Well now it looks less like a prison and more like home, or I don’t know about that, well if home is where you have lots of pics of yourself so yes, more of home”.  
“Heh yeah. My home’s full with pictures my dad took of me, it’s quite annoying after a while”.  
“It’s better than having weirdly photoshopped pics of you in the ceiling together with teddybears shaped like you beside dick pillows”.  
“Wait what?”.  
“Yeah you heard me, my bro’s fucking weird, but what did you even expect? I’m a Strider after all, you should have gotten used to my weirdness by now Egderp”.  
“Well my dad’s also pretty weird. Has a million bottles of shaving cream and puts encouragement notes all over the house that says things like “Dear son, now when you’re strong enough to throw your piano out of your window in a rage attack, you must have taken your first kinder surprise egg imported from Germany and taken your first step of becoming a man” and stuff like that, it’s really weird.  
“Wow, kinder surprise eggs, I’ve heard that those are fucking great, I gotta illegally import some from Canada or Europe or something, I wanna try one so bad, also why is your dad encouraging you to destroy a piano and import something illegal?”.  
“I have no idea and, he’s a baker. Laws doesn't apply to him, when he wants something he gets it by staring at people with his cold baking eyes and determination. If he wants something food related, he’s already got it and the FBI can’t stop him…”.  
“Dude what the actual fuck did you just say?”.  
“I don’t even know myself to be honest”.  
“Okay if you say so”, he said as he layed down on his bed and put the covers over him. His dad seemed almost as weird as his bro, but he just shrugged that thought off.  
Time for some nice relaxation, yeah he really needed it.  
He took up his phone and went through a few apps to see what he’d missed. Not much too be honest.

…

A few hours had passed and Dave was on his way to the campfire with John and Jade. He’d just been in bed the past few hours, texting bro a little, he’d gotten arrested again and Dave was not gonna repeat the reason why, because what his bro said was fucking sick.  
How did he still have legal custody over him anyway?  
He sat down on a log, Jade on his right and John on his left, he felt the warmth from sparking fire on his skin which made him relaxed, and he took a marshmallow from one of the bags on the ground stuffed with them, put it on a stick and started grilling it as more people arrived every minute.  
He was fine with the large crowd as long as no one stole his marshmallows, it was a little easier for him to be in bigger crowds now if he were together with John and Jade, it felt less like people were constantly staring at him.  
Right now he just focused on having a good time, living in the moment, actually experience how it is to have friends to hang out with for once. It was pretty fucking nice actually.  
Soon the usual campfire horror stories started, and as usual they were always so lame so that it made him cringe. One dude was in the middle of telling a story about how people were dressing up as clowns and going on a rampage with weapons and luring children into the woods.   
So fucking lame.  
Like that would ever happen, that was just pure fiction. People may be stupid but if they became so stupid he would give up all his faith in humanity.  
John told a story later that evening, and it was a little more bearable than the average story told by the fire, with was surprising because it was John.  
Turns out he was a creepypasta nerd, he should have figured that out on the spot. But he was actually thankful that someone atleast tried to tell a story that wasn't designed for toddlers.  
He ate a few more marshmallows and move onto s'mores as the storytelling continued, and soon they also started singing and a few people brought their guitars (who brought instruments to summer camp?) and played along. Dave couldn't get YMCA out of his head but he didn't care at the moment, it may be fucking annoying but right now it was okay.  
All these simple things that he never bothered to think about before.  
Today things were just different, in a good way, and he didn't know how long this good mood would last but he enjoyed it.  
Right now he actually wanted the evening to go on a little longer, because once they were walking to their cabins, he felt the urge to goof around more with John and throwing hot marshmallows on each other and other silly things like that. Just the thought made him blush.  
Well there’s always tomorrow.


	25. Fucking Fight Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason Dave acts like an ass in this chapter will be featured in this, and explained at the other a/n at the end of this chapter. It’s actually quite simple and it’s based on me.  
> Also this is the first chapter written now, we have passed the pre written chapters.

Chapter 25: Fucking Fight Me

Day 10 out of 28 of camp.

He sat in the dining hall, eating his breakfast while breathing slowly while listening to the constant bickering, letting the sounds pass him, as he tried not to lose it. He had woken up on the wrong side of the bed today, becoming a wandering steam cloud of rage, and those fucking nightmares mixed with the annoying fuckers called co campers were making it worse, and he wanted to throw them all into oblivion to never be seen again. Oh how he wanted to see them suffer. He felt hurt and wanted to punch something so bad, and that made his whole body to shake slightly, and he couldn't get it to stop which made him even more annoying. His usual fucking luck as usual, life really liked to fuck with him, that’s for sure. How could he had forgotten that little but very special detail? This was his fucking payback for actually having enjoyed the day before, he was just a fucking idiot.  
Oh how he wanted to scream and tear something apart, he needed to take his rage out on something.  
Once he finished his plate, he was still hungry and put more food on his plate before angrily wolfing down it fast. He didn't care if he would get an upset stomach later, he just wanted to get out of this damn dining hall and back into the peace and quiet called cabin number 11 so he could hate those disgusting annoying fuckers in peace.  
He was gonna stay in his room all day and just be alone, no matter what others said.   
If they complained they could just fuck off, no one could boss around with him, he was Dave Strider for God’s sake.  
Once the plate was finished, he didn’t even notice it and just started to grit his teeth as tight as possible, causing a pain that made him even more furious.   
The pain was their fault and he wanted them to pay. Every single sound almost made him lose it, and he just wanted to be alone.  
Those fucking pricks would never understand, and he wanted to scream.  
He was pretty damn sure why he was feeling like this and that just made it even more of a torture that made him want to destroy everything in his way, and lay in his bed forever and close everything out.  
Why the fuck did bro send him here?  
He couldn't do it.  
It was always fucking torture that drove him I sabe, but now he was together with fucking strangers and it made it even worse. He would do anything to run away and never come back.   
He was too weak for this.  
Fuck.  
He gave up, he really couldn’t do it right now.  
Okay he had to leave the dining hall before he started to tear up and cry like a two year old toddler that didn't get their favorite teddy bear to cuddle with but instead got their second best.  
He took a deep breath before standing up. He quickly put his plate away and started to walk towards the exit of the hall, once he opened the door the outdoor breeze hit him and for a second he felt calmer and enjoyed what the nature had to give.  
For a second.  
There were shouting everywhere as a few boys his age, one of them being his cabin mate Justin (aka the fucking rude one) were all shouting at each other for fun, because they weren’t mad, they just wanted to disturb all bypassers. Dave could see it from far away, and oh hell how his ears started to hurt.   
How did they fucking talk louder than the sound of a canon going off or something? But well it was the fastest way to the cabin and he was not in the mood to take a longer way there, he wanted to get there as fast as possible, so he just had to walk closer to that annoying group and then pass them.  
As he got closer, the shouting became louder and it rang in his ears, he tried to walk a little more to the side, this was a wide big plan of grass after all but they somehow seemed to just get closer and closer. Where they following him to annoy him?  
Probably, but he was to angry to notice if they actually moved.  
“Hey dude you crapped your pants or what? It looks like you’re about to cry!”, he heard Justin shout at him.  
That was it.  
He had had enough.  
No one was able to insult him, especially not when he was about to actually have a breakdown and the insulting was about that it looked like he was having one.  
He had drawn the last straw.  
Before he even could realize it himself he felt the pain in his legs, running way faster than humanly possible, and felt his knuckles hardly touch his face, over and over again, making jousting fall to the ground.  
He let out a scream of rage as he held him by the shirt with one hand and repeatedly punched his face with the other.   
He didn’t stop until he saw that he was bleeding.  
He took a few breaths and stood up.  
“Don’t you ever fuck with me you fucking idiot, or you’ll have to pay”, he said and the other boys backed a few steps as he turned around and slowly started to walk to the cabin.  
The adrenaline made him feel great and relaxed, but less than a few seconds later he realized what he had done.  
Fuck.  
Fuck, fuck, fuck.  
He was gonna be in deep shit once the camp leaders found out about this. This thing just fucked him up and wanted him to suffer.  
With the hear beating way up in his throat, he ignored the burning pain in his chest and ran the rest of the way to his cabin and directly ran into the bathroom to see if his fears were true. And they were, now he knew the reason why he once again was on a psychotic rampages to bear people up.  
There was a small puddle of blood in his boxers, which made him unable to breathe.  
He hated it, he hated it so fucking much.  
He always got so moody right before his period started and once he always figured out what it was he just wanted to rip his heart out, every time this happened he just wanted to die.  
He coughed a few times, unable to breathe, and felt tears streaming down his face with turned into a long session of crying.  
He hated every bit of himself.  
This was gonna be a long following week and he wish he would just die on the spot.  
He wished it was true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I actually get this bad in the beginning off my period and I actually have to take meds because once I caused a nosebleed after a huge fight at school when someone stole my pen, and the fact that I hate my body more than anything else makes me extra mad. I ain't exaggerating. The meds make it much better but I’m still mad as fuck sometimes and I wanted to reflect how I was before I got the meds in my writing of Dave, because I had a writers block and wanted to mix things up, so I thought a rage chapter was a good idea after a few normal once to break the boredom


	26. Brotherly Advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you get triggered by anxiety attacks, stop reading once bro and Dave’s texting ends.

Chapter 26: Brotherly Advice

Day 11 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up by the sound of his cabin mates getting dressed for breakfast and another activity day (which he was banned from today anyway).  
He just sighed and tried to get back to sleep, he didn't want anything to do with them.   
He had stayed in bed the rest of the following day, just staring up into nothing, trying to get away from all the thoughts. The camp leaders had came into the cabin not so shortly afterwards, and shouted at him for what felt like fucking forever, over and over again repeating the same fucking stuff about friendship and consequences of his actions with such loud voices so he thought that his ears were about to start bleeding, Justin and his friends had apperantly lied so much so Dave sounded like a psychotic killer out on a murderous rampage, it was a miracle that he hadn't been thrown out but they told him they would call bro, which meant there was only a matter of time before he would start bugging him too.  
Just fucking perfect, the amazing life of Dave Strider everyone.  
John along with Jade had made multiple attempts on getting him out of bed, but he had flat out ignored them even when they put Doritos at his side, he only left the bed to clean up after his blood, he hated it so much and everytime he had to do it he teared up and wished that someone would just shoot him.  
He was just fucked up and he had a disgusting body that did everything wrong and he wanted to tear his heart out because of the pain and anxiety it gave him.  
He turned around, pulling the covers over his face while trying to shut everything out.  
“Hey Dave are you gonna get up?”, he heard John ask before he felt a hand lightly tap his shoulder.  
He ignored it.  
“Dave hello”.  
“Dave?”.  
“Leave me the fuck alone”.  
“Better listen to that fucking faggot you derpteeth, he’s a fucking pussy as you can see”, he heard Justin say and the others laughed, except John.  
Well he didn’t sound that secure yesterday, Dave could hear from miles away that he was faking it just fuck with him.  
He just took a few breaths, ignoring the constant trash talking about himself, the room sure was full of sweaty, hormonal teenage rage. It fucking sucked but he couldn't do much since he didn't have a full right to dibs the cabin himself and lock everyone out off there, sadly.  
After what felt like fucking forever, everyone had finally left the cabin for breakfast and he was alone, hopefully they wouldn't come back anytime soon but rather go directly to their activities.  
Sweet peace.  
Hopefully now he would atleast get a few minutes of descent normalness, or well as normal as it could get when you had the curse of being a Strider in a fucked up body in a fucked up world, aka fucking Texas.  
Some.  
Peace.  
And.  
Quite.  
Nope just two seconds later he felt his phone vibrating and he groaned, he didn't even have a minute before he was interrupted.  
He unlocked his phone and saw that he had gotten a message from pesterchum, it was bro.  
Fuck…

……  
8:57 AM  
timaeusTestified started pestering turntechGodhead

TT: What the fuck did you do lil bro?  
TT: The camp called me and told me you had fucking slaughtered someone, I mean I am impressed by your strife skills but that ain't family members.  
TT: Why did you do it?  
TG: he fucking begged for it thats why  
TT: What did he do?  
TG: hes been a fucking asshole during the entire camp and i couldnt take it anymore  
TG: he deserved it  
TG: hes been a big fucking bully and called us stuff like faggots and you know how i hate those words  
TT: Yeah now I sure understand why you’re mad. Fucking southern bitch.  
TG: and i had anger issues because yknow  
TG: which made me punch him  
TG: now I feel terrible  
TG: not for punching him but for my fucking body  
TT: Dave we’ve talked about this.  
TT: You ARE a dude no matter what anyone says. You’re the coolest dude I know, got it from me because of the damn nice Strider genes.  
TG: i know youre trying to cheer me up but it aint working  
TT: Okay.  
TT: I get that.  
TT: Can you atleast try not to attack someone else because I don't want you thrown out of camp when I’m in another state.  
TG: sure i’ll try  
TG: but i cant promise something if he continues to be a fucking ass  
TT: Okay that’s fair. Some tips if you do fight again, Do a fucking right punch at his eye and kick his nuts, that’ll teach him a lesson.  
TG: ill put that in mind  
TG: those strife lessons sure are nice rn and finally payed off  
TT: They better be, those bruises weren’t for nothing, I thought you how to prepare you for the real world.  
TG: bro for president  
TT: Heh.  
TT: But remember, if I ever hear that he’s bugging you again I will fucking punch him myself. You show him who’s boss.  
TG: will try that  
TT: Gtg now.  
TG: okay see you

9:21 AM  
timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead 

……

Dave let out a huge groan as he locked his phone and put it under his pillow before returning to staring into the wall, doing absolutely nothing, he wasn't worth more anyway.  
He took a few breaths, trying to not start crying, his whole body was filled with emotions and the light pain in his stomach and the feeling of blood almost made him throw up.  
It was so fucking disgusting.  
He was fucked up and he wanted to die.  
He started breathing faster, almost not getting any air at all as he started shaking and coughing because the lack of air. He was about to get an anxiety attack, he knew it. As he was gasping for air he smelled salt before realizing that his face was sticky and warm, when had he started crying?  
He didn’t care, he just wanted this to end. He hated himself too much for this. He wanted to go home.  
He started to become dizzy, feeling everything spun slightly as the pain of a thousand knives stabbed through his lungs.  
The lack of air started to make his brain worried, and it made Dave go into wild panic, hitting himself in the face and throwing up on the floor just to get in some air, which didn't work.   
He stared up into nothing as the tears continued to stream, totally convinced that this was his last moments in life, but he just couldn't breathe enough.  
He let out a last cough before everything turned black and he fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dave’s not dead, once he passed out his body got enough air again. This actually happened to me once and it’s a pretty fucked up feeling and I still don't realize how my body started functioning as normal as always again as soon as I was passed out and it had control.


	27. Making Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was very hard to write and is just a filler.

Chapter 27: Making Up

Day 12 out of 28 of camp.

The light slowly started to shine through the windows, beginning to lightly tickle his eyes until they opened by the sudden sun, and he once again woke up.  
Another shitty day of even more shitty things.  
Yesterday he literally never left the cabin, not even for food, he survived on chips, coke and energy drinks, and completely ignored all tries from John and Jade to get him out of bed, he even gave the camp leaders the cold shoulder and told them to fuck off when they told him he atleast needed to go and eat something that wasn't snacks but he refused. He would rather die than leave his bed right now, he just couldn't, it felt wrong, his whole body screamed for him to stay and get out at the same time.  
And the fact that he got shit for staying in bed by the other cabin mates didn't help either, pretty much the opposite. His life was just a big fucking mess and he could never do anything right. He would probably stay here for the rest of camp and rot away, there’s nothing else to do anyway.  
He let out a big groan and stretched his limbs, trying to fall asleep again, enjoying the empty cabin. As he was almost drifting away, he of course heard the door open and someone walked in, his normal luck.  
“Hey Dave, you up?”. It was John again, it always was. But like before he just kept staring at nothing, not being in the mood to talk.  
“Hey I know you don't wanna talk but you haven't eaten since I don't even know so I brought you a PB&J sandwich from the dining hall just so you know”, he said before putting the small plate at the edge of his bed, before walking out of the cabin, leaving him alone again.  
He gave him a mental nod, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to see it, and also let out a mental “thank you dude”, because that was a decent act and he was starting to grow tired of only chips. They may be awesome but becomes boring as fuck if there’s no other food in between.  
He sat up, slowly grabbing the sandwich from the plate before taking a bite.  
It was alright, kinda tasty, should have needed maybe a little bit more jelly but it was better than the average sandwich. He took another bite, and he finished the rest of it in less than a minute, licking the jelly from his fingers before putting the plate on the floor. Now he atleast had some (kind of) decent food in his system. The thought of being healthy was apparently supposed to make most people feel better about themselves, but not Dave. But the fact that John brought him food was kind of nice though, almost like if he actually cared for him.  
He stretched his limbs once more, slowly, before letting out yet another groan as he pulled the covers back over him and adjusted to a nice position before trying to relax.  
Which failed hard by the way.  
He gave up.  
No matter how he tried to move, he felt less comfortable each time. It was his body saying that he should stop being fucking angry and go up and do stuff, but he didn't wanna. He didn't wanna do anything when he was bleeding, it was disgusting and he hated it.  
And if he decided to get up of bed, what if he bled through his pants? Then his secret would be revealed and everyone would mock him. Who knows what those cabin mates of him might do?  
He didn't even wanna think about it.  
Of all people, why him?  
Life was fucking unfair, he always pulled the short straw on it.  
He sighed.

……

Hours had passed and the evening was near, the daily camp fire gathering happening soon. The cabin mates had went into the cabin a few times to get stuff, and right now John was the only one there except for him, and he looked at Dave sadly before starting to speak quietly, the nervousness in his voice was there.  
“Dave, I'm sorry if I’m clingy but I don't know what to do. I don't know what I did but I'm sorry. I understand if you don't wanna talk to me, but here is another sandwich if you're hungry”, he said and put it beside the bed, and then was about to leave.   
Dave couldn't do it anymore, John fucking thought it was his fault he felt like shit. He had to talk to him even if that made things complicated, he was gonna stay put in bed no matter what but he could atleast talk to him a little after that shitty move of ignoring him.  
“Thanks”, he said before coughing once, it had been a while since I actually talked. “Sorry for being a huge pain in the ass, it’s not your fault”.  
“A-are you sure?”, John asked worryingly, still slightly thinking it was his fault that Dave felt like this.  
“Hundred percent sure, thanks for the food by the way but I ain't coming up for a while”.  
“Why’s that?”.  
“Non of your business”.  
“Oh sorry”.  
“I swear in a few days I’ll come up when I feel better, and that’s it”, he said, trying not to make him more questioning. He would die if John found out about his period.  
“Okay I wish that whatever it is but that you’ll be better”.  
“You know you can still sit here and talk, I was a fucking douche for just ignoring you all that time, hell I’m still the biggest fucking douche on the planet”, he said, giving away a slightly distressed laugh as he thought bad about himself, that he immediately regretted because it didn't go low enough for it to be a typical dude laugh.  
Fucking voice from hell.  
“You’re not a douche, you’re nice and pretty cool”.  
Cool.  
That confidence he had a few days prior was completely gone, the amazing Dave Strider was currently hurt and only time could heal him.  
“Well sure, bring some s’mores from the camp fire for me, will you?”.  
“Will do, see you later and take care. Also can Jade come over to the cabin tomorrow and do stuff with us. You don't need to leave your bed”.  
“Okay sure”.  
“Okay”, he said and laughed slightly, his bucktoothed grin slightly making him blush.   
Tomorrow would still suck, but maybe a bit less than the previous days.

 


	28. Cards Against Humanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back after some writer's block.

Chapter 28: Cards Against Humanity

Day 13 out of 28 of camp.

“Morning Dave”, John said as he stood beside his bed and carefully tapped his shoulder to make sure he was awake. Dave yawned and he blinked a few times before turning around in bed. meeting his sparkling deep blue eyes, staring into them as he started into his fierce red ones, for just a second but a second that felt longer. He decided to break the awkward-ish thing with a casual and and non ironic conversation starter, the way only he could.  
“Sup”.  
Yep Dave Strider, the master of poetry and long Shakespearean quotes everyone, the true master.  
“You have red eyes?”.  
Oh shit.  
He quickly fetched his shades and put them on, covering his freaked fucked mutant eyes.  
“Don't tell a fucking soul or I’ll beat you into dust, I fucking hate them”.  
“Oh okay I won't, but I think they’re pretty cool, unique and nice”.  
“O-okay?”.   
Was this guy serious?  
“So I’m gonna go and eat some breakfast, do you want me to fetch you something? The last thing you ate was s’mores”.  
“Sure dude. Give me some pancakes and bacon bro, that would be neat as fuck. I would kill for some warm food right now”.  
“Okay I will”, he said before closing the door to the cabin, leaving him alone once again. (Seriously the other cabin mates were almost never in the cabin for some reason, not only because the author needed the cabin free for plot and because he was too lazy to make something else up, and no fourth walls being broken at all, but back to the main story)  
Of all things, why did he have to see his fucked eyes? This was why he wanted to sleep with his shades if he was sure they wouldn't break. He hated them more than anything because well they were red for starters, and well, THEY WERE RED, oh and did he mention that they were red? Like a fucking anomaly.   
But well he guessed it could have been worse, like John finding out about his other secret. If he had then he would call the first cab and go back to Austin by himself, not caring if bro was in Jersey. He could live by himself and live on cereal or something.  
He took the opportunity of an empty cabin to get out of bed and fix the stuff for the bleeding, which resulted in him laying on the floor crying because his body was a fucking prison and torture, the reminder of him being a defect.  
After a while he was back in bed, doing his best to forget what had just happened. Maybe he could get a few minutes of sleep or at least relaxing before John was back with his pancakes.  
And right he was, the next few minutes were quiet until the cabin door opened and John came in with the so promised pancakes.  
“There’s a few guys out there that would wanna do stuff if you’re okay with it. Rose has a set of cards against humanity with her and we wanna know if you’d like to play it with us”.  
“Send these fuckers in, I love this game”, he said before he could realize it himself.  
Okay so he was now apparently going to hang with some people John gathered. But well it was a nice game after all, and maybe the people.  
Rose…  
He was trying to remember where he heard that name and when he got it he started to grin. If he remembered right Rose was the girl who had a girlfriend, and he would love to get to know any other lgbt+ related person in this desert. That mixed with one of his favorite games could make this nightmare day bearable, and he just couldn't say no to John’s request of taking them into the cabin when he used those sadly cute puppy dog eyes.  
The oldest fucking trick in the book, but it still worked.  
A minute later the people he recognized as Jade. Karkat, Rose and what must be Kanaya (since she held Rose’s hand) entered the cabin and sat down against his bed, in half a circle as Rose quickly began giving out cards.  
“Sup”, he said, and grinned as he got his cards, he was gonna win this so easily, he had gotten really good ones.   
John began being the card czar and read the card,  
“I have an idea! Let's _”.  
He quickly went through his cards and decided on the most offensive one he could find.  
“So the cards we got was, “Have a tentacle orgy”, “Dance naked in front of a Starbucks”, “Nathalie Portman”?, “Getting your first kiss behind a dumpster” and “Dat big D”.  
Laughter broke out in the cabin on every single one of the answers, especially the ones that didn't make any sense. Out of context things were the best in this game sometimes, and clearly it was this round. John gave Kanaya the first point for the “Dat big D”-card and she just grinned and gave a high five to her girlfriend that sat next to her.  
He took a big bite of the pancake he got as it was his turn to be the czar, and red the black card  
“Only children believes in _”.  
He saw the others look through their cards.  
“Oh I’ve got a good one”, he heard John say as he sounded pretty excited.  
“Talk to yourself fuckass, my card will clearly be superior to yours”.  
“Wanna bet?”.  
“Sure as hell”.  
He read all the cards, “Magic”, which was lame. “The ten dual commandments”, what even?, “Innocence”, okay these were lame, and the last “Pulling out”.  
Okay he may have snorted out little while reading that card, whoever chose it was a genius.  
“The pulling out card wins this round”.  
“Yeah fuckass what did I say? Karkat wins”, he said and took the card.  
“Shut up ginger, that was probably only luck, I’ll score the next one”, Kanaya said and ruffled his hair, which made Karkat growl a little like a dog (how?).  
“Fuck off Maryam”.  
“Wash your mouth with soap Vantas”.  
“Okay are we gonna fight or play?”, Jade asked as she became the czar and drew a black card.  
“Okay guys, the card says “I drink to forget _””.  
“This is easy as fuck”, Dave said as he chose his card, which fittingly said “alcoholism”.  
“You’re not the only one who thinks that mister, I also great card”, Rose said.  
This was getting interesting and he sure was gonna win over her.  
“Okay so the cards said, “Donald Trump”, (okay Dave had to say the person who picked that card was a genius), “Alcoholism”, “WW2” and lastly “Spanking”. This is a pretty tough one, give me a sec”.  
Dave patiently sat in his bed and took another bite of the pancakes while he waited.  
“Okay it was really even between alcoholism and Trump, but I chose alcoholism”.  
“The Strider is fucking slaying”, Dave said and took the card. “Who’s the czar now?”.  
“Me, I believe”, Rose said. “I must say, the game just started but it's already getting good, it was a nice idea to let you borrow it”.  
She took up a black card and read it,  
“10% of adults admit to having an addiction of _”.  
Dave chose his card immediately, “memes”. It was such a bad card, so bad so it might work if he was lucky.  
“I think I got one”, John said.  
“You say that every time Egbert”, Karkat said.  
“Get that’s my nickname for him”, Dave answered.  
“Since when?”.  
“Since the first day of this stupid camp. So I trademarked it”.  
“Okay sure dude”.  
“Are we gonna play or start talking about John’s nickname?”, Kanaya asked and sighed.  
“Okay I’ll read the cards now, “Memes”, “Midget porn”, “Pubes”, and lastly “The Neverending Story””.  
Rose coughed before continued to speak,  
“Well this one is easy, midget porn for sure”.  
“Kanaya scores”, she said and took the card, and also gave Rose a small kiss on the cheek in the progress.  
Damn they were cute together.  
“OTP”, Jade shouted and Dave saw their small blushes before Kanaya took up a black card and was about to read it.  
Well time to start playing some more then.

 


	29. Day 14

Chapter 29: Day 14

Day 14 out of 28 of camp.

Yesterday had ruled.  
Even though he had stayed in bed the entire day it had ruled, spending it with John, Jade, Rose, Karkat and Kanaya had made him be in a much better mood, and playing Cards Against Humanity had really cheered him up, they had spent hour after hour trying to come up with more offensive things to answer, Kanaya won by the way. And the smalltalk between each round was nice, it ranged from memes to personal info, he really started liking these new people.  
And the fact that they respected that he didn't want to leave bed without knowing why, it warmed his heart. Thankfully he usually had short periods so he would probably be up tomorrow, it would be a camp activity day so they couldn't all spend time together, but Jade was in his group. Oh and Karkat he guessed, even though the ginger was nice he still was a little annoying, but apparently his big brother Kankri was worse than him. He didn't know how though, but he someone trusted him on that one and hoped he would never meet big brother Vantas.  
Dave, as always, woke up to the sound of the others getting ready for breakfast, and he groaned once he was pulled out of his sleep. He had been in the middle of a really good dream for once, him and all his friends just chilling, and him also being closer to John, cuddling him shyly. Just the thought of the dream made him blush slightly, and you couldn't blame him, he was so gay for that dork.  
“Morning derp”, he said as John jumped down from the bed over his and carelessly began changing, taking his shirt of, exposing his bare light brown shiny chest, he sure hoped his blushing wasn't too obvious, because damn.  
“Morning Dave, want pancakes today as well?”, he asked as the pants and boxers went off, Dave trying to look away and not blush too badly while John was literally a meter in front him in his birthday suit.  
“Sounds about right”, he said so there wouldn't be any awkward silence. “And if they do have any Mountain Dew, could you bring me a can? I'm out of them”.  
“Sure I will”.  
“Hey are you two gays gonna hurry up or are you gonna have sex when we other leave?”, they hurt someone said.  
“Shut up Justin, not everyone is a slut for breakfast like you, why does it even matter that we’re lazier. Or you jealous and secretly wanna join?”, Dave said, trying to sound plain, which made the other cabin mates laugh a little.  
When will they learn that Dave was the better roaster of them all?  
“Fuck off”, he said, clearly getting a tint of red on his face.  
“Well you started it”, John said and Dave gave him a high five, which actually was pretty weird since he was only in boxers.  
They all left the cabin, John too after an extra minute of smalltalk, so now Dave would have some glorious time for himself, John would probably be back in twenty to thirty minutes or something, but sadly he and his friends couldn't do much until after lunch since they all had camp activities before it (the camp leaders had been angry at him again for not wanting to participate today either but fuck them).  
As he had nothing to do, he took up his phone and went through his apps quickly, opened pesterchum and saw that bro was online. So why not talk to him when he knew he would answer directly?

……

8:02 AM

turntechGodhead began pestering timaeusTestified

TG: yo bro you there  
TT: Hey lil bro.  
TT: What's up?  
TG: typical camp stuff we are having breakfast soon  
TG: and then just weird shenanigans aka camp activities  
TT: You looking forward to it?  
TG: meh not really i am more excited for after lunch  
TG: wait why the fuck did i say that  
TT: Oh what happens after lunch? Got a boyfriend?  
TG: no i dont have a boyfriend  
TG: i dont try to flirt with any man i see like you do  
TG: im just gonna hang with some people  
TT: So lil mister Dave got friends? Gonna invite them to a birthday party?  
TG: shut up  
TT: Hey you told me ‘bout those friends. What's their names?  
TG: rose shes pretty cool but kinda weird and liked wizard books  
TG: and her girlfriend kanaya who is really good at cah  
TT: Oh someone has CAH at camp? The good shit.  
TG: yeah  
TG: and theres karkat the fucking annoying ginger who screams at everything  
TG: and jade the anime freak that is also really good at drawing  
TG: and john the typical nerd  
TT: Oh I remember him, sure he ain't your boyfriend?  
TG: yes bro i am sure  
TT: But are you having fun?  
TG: yeah i told you we are playing cah and are being ironic and talking about memes i get to show of my rapping and roast people like i did five minutes ago fucking slayed   
TT: Dude you really gotta start using punctuation and commas because your sentences are hard to read when they’re long.  
TG: meh  
TG: too much work and ive had this writing style for years so it would be a shame to change it  
TT: Well it was worth a shot atleast. Because dude your writing is worse than the FNAF fandom.  
TG: the fuck did you just say im disappointed  
TT: You’re the one disappointed red pepe?  
TG: why the fuck did i even message you  
TT: Search me, but I got to roast some Strider jr again because I'll always be the master roaster.  
TG: wanna fucking bet  
TT: Nope because i already won.  
TT: Well I’ve gtg now bro, puppet porn doesn't shoot itself.  
TG: k  
TG: bye bro

8:25 AM

timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead

……

He put his phone away and waited for John to come with his breakfast, and it wasn't such a long wait at all. Soon John came running into the cabin and set the plate of pancakes on his bed before quickly disappearing as fast as he arrived, just saying that he’s come back later.  
Dave was left alone with his pancakes and took a big bite, the food being hard to swallow today since he was bored and wanted it to be afternoon, not only for the sake of seeing John, but the others too. He really had a great time yesterday and would really like to do it again, for the first time in forever he had a nice group of friends and he wanted to have as much fun as possible to make this camp a bit funnier.  
It had worked so far, Cards Against Humanity had been really nice, he was happier than he had been in days. Hopefully that would hold.

……

A few hours later...

“Hey you should have chosen my card. “Anal sex” is a way better answer than “The crying children of New York”, like who even puts that card”.  
“Sorry John but that czar has talked and I won the round, better luck next time Egderp”, Dave said and took the card.  
“Well I'm gonna own you”.  
“Wanna bet?”.

 

 

 

 


	30. 3 AM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING  
> This chapter contains severe homophobia and homophobic slurs.

Chapter 30: 3 AM

Day 15 out of 28 of camp.

_The shining sun warmed him and reflected the light on his pale bare chest. The birds were singing and he was laying comfortably on the soft grass, looking at the clear sky. John was beside him, holding his hand as he pointed up at the fluffy clouds, making up what the shapes looked like, making a goofy buck toothed grin as he did, just seeing it made his heart warm and his eyes sparkled. He smiled back before closing his eyes, absorbing the summer heat, just imagining the smile with the deep blue eyes once more, and again, and again while the scent of freshly cut grass sneaked into his mind._   
_He had the key to his heart, it was confirmed. He couldn't even explain it anymore, but that was okay._   
_Everything was okay near John._   
_His John._   
_He never wanted this to end, just relaxing with him was amazing, this was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to him. He felt warmer every second, the feelings running through him, if true happiness had a name, it would be this._   
_“Let’s swim!”, John shouted as he pointed at the lake and he happily followed, jumping into the hot, no, cold water._   
_Fuck._

“Wake up fucker!”, he heard Justin shout in his ear before emptying a bucket of water over him, leaving him and his bed soaking wet. The cold water made him shiver as he was taken away from the dream world, and he couldn't even get up and change into dry clothes right now because he didn't trust anyone right now, they might try to rip off his shirt. The shock made him breath short breaths while he tried to progress what had just happened.  
Fuck it.  
The annoying cabin mates woke him up without any reason, in the middle of the night.   
Again.  
Third time today actually.  
And this time with water added.  
And he was getting annoyed.  
For god's sake he just wanted to sleep, his period was finally over and he just wanted to celebrate with some nice sleep and maybe no nightmare for once (which was true and that made this worse), but apparently that was too much to ask for in this goddamn world full of idiots. Like who the fuck raised their kids like this? Someone with no fucking dignity, that's who.  
“Can you guys shut the fuck up? The sun isn't even up yet and some of us want to sleep”.  
“Naw lil dude can't fall back to sleep without his mommy or? Need a teddy bear and a clean diaper?”.  
Laughters were heard from the whole caving, echoing inside of his head as pure rage was being built up.  
Calm it Dave.  
You don't wanna get in trouble surf the camp leaders again.  
And now he’s thinking too much again instead of just answering Justin.  
“The first, my mom’s dead. The second, shut up”.  
“You’re starting to sound like a fucking girl with all this ranting, that's the only thing they do, ranting, blah blah, boys, blah blah, shoes, blah blah”.  
Fuckfuckfuck.  
“Well at least girls won't think I'm a complete idiot like you guys, I would be surprised if anyone ever dated you since you act like immature five years old. Heck I feel sorry for the people that will make the mistake to date you Justin and not me, like they must be blind or something because damn you look like a rag”.  
Well he wasn't straight but he couldn't say that here, for quite obvious reasons.  
“What girls? You are probably gay anyway, you probably already have aids after all that filthy dick you’ve had up your ass”, another dude said. Well that was exactly the reason he needed to pretend to be both cis and straight.  
Now he really wanted to hurt someone.  
Badly...  
“Nah he’s too ugly even for the gays too, I would be surprised if anyone at all wanted that freak as a boyfriend, or even just in the sheets, not even the horniest gay wants that thing, but well he can keep the gays, more pussy for us”.  
That Justin was more than getting on his nerves, one more thing and this would become a bloodbath. A huge bloodbath, he didn't care if he got in trouble once more, because that behavior was unacceptable and it disgusted him.  
“Justin leave Dave alone”, he heard John say, finally saying something since he had woken up. “It's like three in the morning and I bet everyone here is mad for not getting sleep after being woken up three times already by you and your immatureness”.  
Well at least he wasn't alone with dealing with Justin anymore. At least a small start  
“Shut your mouth four eyes”.  
“Four eyes? Is that seriously the best you could get? Like how old are you guy? Six?”, Dave answered to defend John. “That was an insult first graders use, if you’re gonna bully someone then atleast try, I’d rather watch a one hundred hour marathon of cringe YouTube videos than listening to your fucking dry insults, they’re pathetic, it’s not 2005 anymore, or maybe it is for you babies, so better go to kindergarten so you won't miss your nap, and bring your pacifier”, he said. He had worked up the burns, and he was gonna roast this fucker into oblivion.  
He’s gonna pay for not only insulting him and waking him up, but also because he insulted John.  
No one was gonna drag John into this mess.  
“Oh Justin the gay knows how to burn”, someone said.  
“Shut your fucking mouth!”, he screamed at the boy before returning to pestering Dave.  
“You’re gonna regret being nosy so fucking much you fucking idiot. I hate you”.  
“Well at least we have something in common, I hate you too, more than feelings can express little Justin”.  
“FAGGOT!”, he screamed and the next thing Dave knew, he felt a sharp pain on his right eye, Justin had jumped into his bed and hit him, the throw being so violent so it shocked him. He didn't scream, but threw back, making Justin fall out of his bed to the ground, with the head hitting the ground first.  
“Now leave me the fuck alone and let me sleep or I’ll rip you into pieces”.


	31. Canoeing

Chapter 31: Canoeing

Day 15 out of 28 of camp.

A few hours had passed since the incident, once the others had gone back to sleep, he had snuck out and changed into dry clothes before going back to bed, hoping to have that dream about John again, but these last hours of sleep were dreamless, sadly.

He woke up at the same time the others, took his binder from under the pillow and took his camp shirt before going into the bathroom to change.  
Damn it felt weird having the binder on after a few days of just being in bed, but it also felt refreshing and relaxing. Now he would be sort of ready for camp life again, woohoo, score for the Strider. He brushed his teeth, put the shirt over the binder and exited the bathroom, and sat on his bed as he waited for John (half dressed) to get ready so they could go and meet up with Jade, Rose, Kanaya and Karkat for breakfast, and Dave was betting five bucks that John would choose pancakes today as well, that maniac.  
“You ready yet Egbert?”, he asked.  
“Just a sec Dave, only the shirt left”, he said before sliding it over his bare sunburned torso (don't blush Dave, don't), and then put on his glasses and smiled at him slightly, “Okay now we can go”.  
“Good because I'm starving, better eat some sweet meat for breakfast before I go insane, sausages it is for me, damn I'm hungry”.  
“Sure, I think I'll take pancakes today”.  
Knew it, five bucks to the Strider everyone, able to see into the future and all.  
“When don't you?”, he said as he opened the cabin door and they walked out, Jade was sitting on the tall grass, dog ears on as usual, and waited for them. She waved her hand once she saw them and stood up, following them to the dining hall, Karkat, Kanaya and Rose were already there, Dave spotted them at a table in the corner, holding seats for them.  
“Let's get our grub and sit down with them”, he said as he places a few sausages onto his plate and then took some scrambled eggs.  
“Morning everybody”, John said as he sat down and immediately started to munch on his huge tower of pancakes.  
“Greetings, so how do you think this day will go?”, Kanaya asked. Dave just shrugged his shoulders as an answer and Karkat spoke up.  
“Fucking terrible, who even likes this shit? Bulldoze the school that thought these leaders that the camp activities are fun, they probably have less brain cells than a fly”.  
“Dude for once I'm with you”, Dave answered.  
“Of course you fucking are”.  
“Karkat calm down”, Kanaya said.  
“Fuck off”.  
“Don't make me call Porrim, she will tell Kankri”.  
“Okay you fucking win, fuckass”.  
“Who is Porrim?”, Jade asked.  
“My big sister, she’s friends with Karkat’s brother”.  
“Wow cool, I wish I had siblings, it's only me and Bec back on the island”.  
“No you don't want siblings, Kankri is a huge piece of arrogant shit and you don't want him near you”.  
“Well at least my bro’s cool”, Dave said.  
“Yeah he does sound cool by the things Dave’s told me”, John said.  
“Interesting”, Rose said. “Tell us other about him”.  
He shrugged his shoulders again before starting to talk.  
“Well sure. He’s weird as fuck but he is caring and cool, he makes money by doing weird puppet porn and we strife a lot, and he taught me the value of sweet irony, my childhood was art”.  
“Puppet porn?”, Kanaya asked, giving a puzzled look.  
“Don't ask okay, it's a long fucking story. Trust me, you don't wanna know the details”.  
“Well okay then? I guess?”.  
“Yeah”.  
No more could be said before the camp leaders entered the room and begged for everyone’s attention, his group, the coyotes was going canoeing again, like they did one of the first days, but this time with slightly larger canoes.  
“Hey Dave, Karkat, let's share a canoe”, Jade said and Dave nodded.  
“Sure”.  
“Well if I fucking have too”.  
Jade looked at Karkat as she said “C’mon Karkat, I bet there will be lots of fun”.  
“I bet that's what the parents of these leaders said when they did it without a condom”.  
Dave let out a small laugh at the comment.  
“Dude that was amazing, true art, ten out of ten”.  
“Well fuck you too you fucking besserwisser”.  
“Dude I actually wasn't ironic this time, that was a nice roast of the camp leaders”.  
“Well okay then”.  
“Okay dudes let go”, Jade said as she jumped of her chair, leaving her plate behind. The two boys did like her, standing up and walking up to the crowd that was the coyotes before everyone walked to their lake to choose canoes. While Karkat was in a fight with another kid about a canoe (and calling him an ignorant shitlick born in the sewers of a failed nuclear power plant during it), Jade gathered life wests while Dace just stood by the lake, looking at everything.  
Karkat won the battle over the canoe and shouted at them to help him get it in the water, Jade made them put on the life wests before carrying the canoes down to the lake. Jade jumped in first, Karkat second and Dave last, and they were on their way. They slowly exited the shore, floating on the clear sparkling water, and as they drifted away, Dave looked up at cloudy sky, enjoying the summer heat as he thought about John and what he might do. Was it pottery?   
Well he didn't care, but he wished John was beside him in the canoe, instead of ginger shorty McShouty. Not that he disliked Karkat or anything, but he just wanted to spend some time with John. Was that too much to ask for?   
Well atleast he would see him at lunch.  
“Let's go left!”, Jade said and pointed, giving them a smile.  
“Sure, whatever you say”, Dave said as he didn't really mind where they were going, they had to be in the canoe anyway so.  
“Look at the birds!”, Jade said and pointed upwards, seeing a flock of birds fly by in a v formation. It looked kind of nice.  
“They’re just fucking birds, no big deal doggo”.  
“Shout your mouth ginger, let her admire the birds if she wants too”.  
“Fuck you”.  
“Well if you insist”.  
“Ew no, I would never date you fuckass, I already like someone else”.  
“Who do you fancy Karkat?”, Jade asked.  
“None of your business”, he said as his freckle filled cheeks became red, he was slightly embarrassed.  
“So lil Karkat has a crush huh”, Dave said and smirked, patting Karkat on the back as a joke.  
“Fuck off already I said, or I'll have to push you nooksucking idiots into the lake!”.  
“Not if we do it first”.  
“Wait what?”.  
“Jade grab him and push!”.  
“If you fucking do it I’ll…. AAAAGH”.  
Next second a huge splash was heard and Karkat was floating in the water, coughing a little, water escaping his mouth. He looked up at Dave and Jade, his eyes on fire, his whole expression full of anger because of what they had just done to him.  
“YOU’RE FUCKING GONNA PAY FOR THAT!”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters come out slow because I'm currently writing next chapter for "Red", and I'm writing the entirety of an upcoming fic.


	32. A Filler Like Chapter That Hints At Future Events

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a major writer's block for this story okay.

Chapter 32: A Filler Like Chapter That Hints At Future Events

Day 15 out of 28 of camp.

As they came back to the shore, feet back on trusty old land, the first thing Dave did was to run all the way across the camp to his cabin, in case the the still soaking wet Karkat wanted some revenge after being pushed down into the cold water, twice actually. He and Jade had done it a second time when they got tired of Karkat calling them second hand bone bulges (whatever that even meant? Like that kid knew some strange fucking words, it was worse than Bro actually).  
After a few minutes of running, a tired and exhausted Dave was inside of his cabin (regretting the run), and he took a big breath as he relaxed and jumped onto his bed, the mattress felt like it was made from a legendary entity right now, he was so exhausted, and there was also about thirty minutes left until lunch and he could use those minutes to relax and perhaps even nap (hah he wished). He was a teenager after all, and according to all stereotypes about teenagers, they were lazy as fuck, so he could live up to it if people thought he was lazy anyway.  
He grabbed one of his Monster energy drinks, the red one of course, because red was the best color, and downed it in under a minute. He knew the rush of energy would kick in after a few minutes, but until then he could be as lazy as he pleased, so he took out his phone, going onto twitter, liking his bro’s new tweet that involves a pic of a puppet penis, before himself putting out a new tweet,  
“camps kinda ok which surprises me since everyone are absolute morons but they have a tv so hopefully ill survive”.  
Less than a minute after he posted that tweet, he had gotten over thirty likes and two retweets (yes this dude was trying to act internet famous like he was a big deal, he really wasn't”).  
A yawn escaped from his mouth as he took his headphones out from under the pillow and inserted them into his phone, before laying back and relaxing, figuring out what kind of music he should listen to right now.  
Like there was Watsky, which was a rap god, Eminem, mainstream but pretty cool, but he was not in the mood for that.  
Well he guess he could listen to TOP but what if someone came in when he wasn't noticing and looked at his phone screen?  
As much as he loved them, they had to wait.  
At the end he decided on listening to some good old Gorillaz, he hadn't listened to them in a while, but they had pretty sweet music, so under those periods he listened to them, it was only them.  
Just the thought of that made Dave’s mind photoshop him into pictures beside crazy fangirls, he may be crazy, but not that crazy. He was only a fanboy (which he didn't wanna admit) to TOP.  
As he was laying back, enjoying the sweet beats, the cabin door opened, one of the douches came in, took some things, and went away, as fast as he had came.  
He had also been saying something to Dave, but the music blocked all other sound out so he didn't hear, and he didn't want to hear either so it wasn't such a big loss, this was way better than letting his music time being ruined by idiots.  
A few more minutes passed, and Dave was completely stuck in his own world, when he felt a light knock on his shoulder, and as he looked up, there was John.  
“You ready for lunch?”, he asked as Dave took his headphones of. There was that cute bucktoothed grin again, making Dave freeze in time for a split second like always.  
(No Dave don't blush please don't blush for the love of God).  
He blushed, but John didn't comment on that.  
“You bet I am”, he said as an answer, and a minute later, they left the cabin, walking slowly across the green landscape, listening to the tweets of birds and the annoying sound of flies, until they reached the dining hall.  
As always, Dave put loads of warm food on his plate, and since the table where Jade and the others sat was full (she had said sorry over twenty times, offering to leave the table and sit with them, but they told her to sit with her friends, because they were decent people, and couldn't force her to be with them every moment of the entire camp), they sat down at a small round empty table, free of other people.  
“So what you wanna do after lunch?”, John asked as he bit into a huge pancake (really John? Breakfast food for lunch?).  
“Don't know, just chill I guess. You got any idea of something cool?”.  
“Not really but we could maybe go to the waterfall again? I would die for a dip in the cold water in this heat, I still don't get how you Texans do it. The weather in New York is more bearable”.  
“Sure we can go to the lake, but I'm not swimming, just chilling in the hammock”.  
“Aw what a bummer. You really sure you don't wanna swim? Not just for a little?”.  
“One hundred percent, the Strider stays on land”.  
“But won't you sweat in the heat?”.  
“Meh I can bear it, no big deal”, he said, trying to play it of as cool as he should. But in reality, he would kill for a cold dip in that lake, but sadly he couldn't.  
“What about another day?”.  
“Maybe, but most likely not”, he said.  
“Why?”.  
Shit.  
“Didn't bring any swim clothes with me”, he said, which was actually true”.  
“Oh so it's that, you could have just told me you didn't wanna show your junk, you can borrow an extra pair of swimming trunks from me if you wanna”.  
Well this dude sure was nice but no, still no.  
No fucking way that he would go in the water.  
“No it's really fine, I’m not much for swimming anyway”, he said, looking up for a split second before looking down at the warm food, trying to act natural, so he ate a few bites, completely stopping the conversation for a while.  
“Okay it's your choice, but if you ever change your mind I’ll be more than happy to let you borrow a pair, just tell me”.  
“Okay sure Egderp”.  
He sighed.  
If it only was that easy...


	33. A Good Night's Kiss

Chapter 33: A Good Night’s Kiss

Day 16 out of 28 of Camp.

Dave groaned a little as he moved around on his bed, still extremely tired, and it was not going anywhere. Of course he would have sleep problems today of all fucking days.  
Yesterday had been a really good day actually, after that nice but awkward lunch chat together, they had spent the afternoon at the waterfall lake to get away from the heat (or well John getting away from the heat), only the two of them, John was swimming for hours, while Dave had been laying in the hammock, trying not to die from a heat stroke or something similar, wishing with all his heart that he could have joined the swim.  
One day he would have to go there all by himself, the water seemed so cool and refreshing, and Texas was literally an oven trying to bake the humans. He would kill for a swim.  
Like seriously.  
Even though Dave had been sweating like an idiot, it had been a really nice afternoon, they had a casual chat going on for hours, and as the time had progressed, Dave had learnt a lot more about John, and had gotten an even lesser urge to act overly cool to impress people, but still enough cool was put in there so he would still feel masculine enough to pass.  
Some of the little things he had learned about John was both nice and cute, like the fact that he was terrified of spiders and that his favorite album ever was Vessel, and that bad movies was even more of a guilty pleasure of his than Dave had thought, John adored those like if they were sentient gods. Weird but it had made Dave giggle a little at the mention of it.  
Of course John had also learned new things about him, but those weren't so interesting to let's skip them and go back to the present, before the writer changes his mind or gets another month long writer’s block.  
The sound of talking in the cabin was nothing for Dave right now.  
It was still very early, much earlier than the usual time his cabin mates woke up, and he hated it.  
He needed his sleep, and needed just a few hours more of recovering from his badly aching chest before he would put on the binder again.  
For the most part he wanted to stay in bed all day so they chest would heal better, but he just got back from fucking blood hell, so he couldn't be in bed even more, could he?  
Probably not.  
He just wanted to hang with John, even though his huge crush was probably unanswered the time just went by faster when John was near, even when Karkat was near, but he had honestly gotten used to that little gremlin, no, human he meant.  
All of his body wanted him to fall asleep again, they land if dreams coming closer and closer, but every time he was just seconds away from dreaming, there was a sound louder than the average sounds that always knocked him clear awake.  
These dudes were talking about sex and shaming females and so on, and this was not what he liked to hear, especially when he was sleepy. If there only was a way for them to stop their annoying talking.  
But nope.  
They talked for hours until it was time for breakfast, and Dave was so tired so he was shaking, and his eyes were red (like more red than usual).  
No he couldn't do it, his legs were heavy like tons and tons of bricks, and he wasn't concentrated at all, if felt like he would fall straight onto the floor if he tried to stay up. His fucking luck he guessed.  
But thankfully his tiredness didn't go unnoticed, so he didn't have to get up.  
“How are you feeling Dave?”, he heard John’s soothing voice ask just moments after he jumped down from the top of the bunk bed, starting the change clothes.  
“Fucking terrible if I may say so, I got like two or three hours of sleep and my body is currently like a nuclear reaction or some shit, feels like a million all nighters, and I’m honestly scared of drinking a Monster right now in this state. Heard about those heart attacks?”.  
Okay the last part wasn't that true, he wasn't worried about heart attacks, but that he would be so tired so he wouldn't be discreet enough with his binder or some shit, and he actually was way more tired than usual.  
“Okay that's bad. Do you think you would be able to go up and get breakfast?”, he asked and he slowly shook his head.  
“Not in a million fucking years dude, I'm too fucking tired for this”, Dave said, before letting out a major yawn, that almost made him fall asleep on the spot, but as usual, a noise in the background destroyed everything Dave wanted and loved (which was sleep in this case).  
“I'll go get you some food and eat here with you okay? Then you don't need to get up and you can sleep, and we can hang out on the afternoon. Does that sound good?”.  
“Fucking perfect… Egderp”, he said before another huge yawn interrupted his speech pattern.  
He vaguely saw that John nodded, and then heard the cabin door close, but there was still sound inside, John must have been the first one to sleep.  
And that meant, no short nap for at least two minutes or so, oh how he would kill for a nap that lasted just a few seconds.  
But faith wasn't nice to Dave (sort of), because when the loud guys left, John came back mere seconds later, at a perfect timing, and with him was a plate of pancakes and a big fruit smoothie.  
He tirely thanked, and slowly tried to eat the pancakes, but only got a few bites in his mouth, arm to tired to lift the fork. John ended up holding the smoothie for Dave as he slowly downed it, feeling a little better, but not less tired at all, but as a thank you of that nice gesture of bringing him food, he smiled at him.  
“No problem Dave”, he says as he placed the pancakes on the side. “Eat the rest when you feel like it and sleep if you wanna, you look like you really do need that sleep”.  
He just nodded, said good night (or morning in this case?), and heard John whisper goodnight”, to him too, as his vision became blurry, and he couldn't tell if the last thing he saw and felt before completely being asleep was real or not, but it felt like he had gotten a soft kiss on his cheek.  
Everything disappeared from his mind, as he only was focusing (sort of), of the warmth and happiness that spread in him.  
He still didn't know if this happened for real, but a soft and relaxing, caring feeling was at least the last thing on his mind before complete blackness and deep sleep, followed by dreams about a certain mr John Egbert.


	34. Unanswered Question

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this is a build up to the next chapter, that will have some plot moving the actual love story further. And by that, there will be confusion and hints of confession.

Chapter 34: Unanswered question.

Day 16 out of 28 of camp.

_The sun was shining, birds were singing and as he looked at the camp, he heard the sound of someone walking on the green grass surrounded by blooming flowers, the smell of summer everywhere in the air, and he slowly turned around, to see the thing that changed it all, that would change everything, forever. His heart was beating to the extreme, faster than humanly possible, did it even beat at all? Everything was so fast, and wonderful, and simply perfect. A pair of sky blue eyes and a pair of glasses was the only thing he saw, until he backed away a step, that amazing bucktoothed smile of that amazing boy he was in love with, was the only thing that existed. The only thing that ever mattered in his life. His nerdy dream boy._   
_All sound was gone, and so was the surrounding, it was only him, John, and a glimmering light that existed in the whole universe._   
_He felt a hand in his, as his cheeks became red, and his whole body shivered at the small touch._   
_He closed his eyes, and a second later he felt a shy kiss pressed against his own lips, and he couldn't believe exactly what he was feeling, something that was unable to explain with mere words, only feelings._   
_Everything felt like exploding fireworks, his body getting warmer and warmer for each lovely second, as if an aura of pure happiness was around him and never wanted to leave. He never wanted it too leave, and wanted to stay in this embrace, kissing John forever._   
_And there time stopped._

\------

Dave woke up by slowly opening his eyes, discovering that he was practically making out with his pillow, and quickly pulled away from it so it wouldn't look weird.  
Fuck how long had he been sleeping?  
The only thing he remembered was John. His cute, goofy John with that smile of his. And, a kiss?  
He vaguely remembered a kiss on the lips, and a kiss on the cheek.  
The kiss on the lips were obviously from a dream (like why the fuck would John kiss him), and he thought the cheek kiss was too, but it felt different. He couldn't tell why but for him it felt like it really happened, but it probably never did. And he couldn't really straight up go and ask John like “Hey dude did you kiss me?”.  
That would be so damn weird for John and he would probably figure out Dave had a crush on him that way, because how often do you dream about kisses from people you aren't in love with?  
All this was a giant mindfuck to say the least, and he shrugged as he accepted that even if there was a small possibility that the cheek kiss had happened, he couldn't ask.  
He couldn't risk it, not when there was two weeks left of camp, camp without John would be an absolute fucking torture.  
Well there it goes again, thinking that everything without John would be the worst.  
Damn this crush is growing stronger every damn minute, one part wanted to laugh, and the other to cry, because damn why the fuck did he always fall for the people he was hundred percent sure he couldn't get? And at a homophobic summer camp in Texas for the matter?  
Like why fate?  
Why?  
Fate was a bitch sometimes, he couldn't deny it, and if there were a higher might somewhere like some sort of puppet wielding god wearing green he would give them a giant fuck off.  
What’s the next step? That god self inserting themselves into their reality and making them die multiple times all while talking about loving horses and promoting lesbian alien vampires?   
Pft.  
What the fuck were even the odds for that?  
But well you never knew what could be out there  
He slowly looked around the cabin and saw John sitting on the floor against a wall, reading some book (Dave swore if that was Percy Jackson he would both hate him, and love him for the camp irony), not caring about anything.  
“Sup dude”, he said, catching the other boy’s attention.  
“Hey Dave, you’re awake”.  
“Well that’s pretty obvious don't you think. How long was I out? An hour? Two? Or did I sleep through an alien invasion or something?”.  
“Well it's about 1 PM or something, man you really looked tired so I let you sleep in, you looked like you were about to pass out during the morning and I didn't want you to get sick again, since you just have been in bed for like a week”.  
Fuck he had forgotten about that week completely, well he wanted to keep the memories and facts of some of his bodily functions away from his thoughts because they were wrong as fuck, so it wasn't bad at all that he had forgotten about it for a while. Just surprising.  
Like “oh yeah now I remember I have a fucked up body”. Why did John have to bring that week up? Now his head was spinning like crazy with unrelated thoughts. He took a deep breath before answering.  
“Well thanks for that. Wait did you say 1 PM? That means there’s lunch served, I’m fucking starving, my stomach is growling like if I hadn't eaten something in millions of years. Let's hurry to the food”, he said.   
Food saving his conversation, well that wasn't something new.  
He carefully got out of bed, putting his hoodie in his arms and carefully took the binder out from under the pillow. John was too busy reading anyway for a few more couple of minutes (because that dude hated to leave chapters unfinished apparently, and he didn't wanna try the demon), so Dave didn't really have to worry about time so much, but he was hungry like a wolf, so a small amount of hurrying wouldn't be so bad either.  
Once they left the cabin, went to the dining hall and had eaten their food, John took a huge breath.  
“Okay there’s something I need to tell you”.  
Fuck fuck fuck what was this.  
Dave was nervous.  
“Well it's like, well uh, well… eh never mind I'll talk later about it”, he said, while his cheeks turned red.  
Was this what he thought it was?  
“Don't sweat it bro, if you don't wanna talk, that’s fine with me”, he said, trying to sound calm, even though all of him wanted to go back to that subject.  
They finished their food, and walked out Dave noticed a few boys playing tennis at a shadowy place near the woods, and Dave saw how John smiled and pointed at them.  
“Do you wanna play? I know you’re not much for running so what about this?”.  
“Well sure dude”, he answered.  
Anything was good right now, to get the confusion of the unasked question out of his mind for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm writing this fic, writing an entire chapter fic, and I'm working on three one shots right now and I don't know which to prioritize. Help.


	35. The Kiss

Chapter 35: The Kiss

Day 19 out of 28 of camp.

It's been three days since John was going to talk about something but he changed his mind. All of those questions flew around in Dave’s head, making him unable to think clear, like someone had just dropped a huge fucking bomb inside of his head. He fantasized about all possible questions the dork could possibly ask him, both good and bad ones.  
Sadly mostly bad ones flew around in his cramped head.  
He really hoped that when John wanted to tell him about that thing, it was something good, and not something heartbreaking or something of similar nature. Because he didn't wanna have a heartbreak at all.  
Like he was not expecting a crush confession or anything, even though he knew John was bi, who the hell wanted to date Dave?  
He wouldn't wanna date himself at least.  
He was just annoying to most, and well if he didn't like himself, who else would?  
He shrugged as he was carrying a bag for John, as they walked in the forest, not alone today. They were followed by Jade (spotting the dog ears as usual), Rose and Kanaya holding hands now when they were away from most campers, and small little ginger Karkat, still in that huge oversized turtleneck sweater, in this fucking heat (well he himself has his hoodie but still).  
To say the least, the whole “gang”, (or whatever you could call their little friend group), was there. And their destination on such a sunny day like this one?  
Their own lake of course.  
It's always the lake.  
Everyone was gladly chatting about how good the water would feel, and how fun and relaxing it would be to swim, and how they looked forward to it.  
Well everyone except Dave of course, who was just gonna sit there in the burning heat as always, painfully watching the others swim when he couldn't. But he couldn't exactly leave them?  
They were the first friends he’d had in a really long while, so looking at them swimming wasn't that bad. He’d rather be on the edge of a heat stroke than completely losing the connection with these people, especially John.  
Oh fuck he had stopped thinking about John for a minute, and now all thoughts were back.  
Great fucking job there Dave.  
Now he was once again wondering over the thing John had wanted to tell him, and once again coming up with ideas of what it could be, keeping his brain completely busy.  
This was what he was trying to avoid.  
Damnit.  
Just damnit.  
For a few more tiresome minutes, he had a battle in his head as they walked deeper into not so quiet (because of all the talking) forest, until they arrived at the lake, and he practically ran up to the hammock, making himself comfortable, while the others jumped into the cold water, he felt himself blush a little when John got shirtless and jumped in, making his hair glued to the sides of his head, all while he had that usual bucktoothed grin of his, that made his heart melt, bit by bit, as his heartbeat sped up more than he thought it would, all while he turned more red.  
Fuck don't think about that.  
He quickly turned his head to look at the others, trying to get John out of his head.  
Karkat and Jade were playing some game (entirely Jade’s idea probably, he didn't know if Karkat actually enjoyed it but there was no screaming or cursing, which was pretty unusual for the ginger. And damn he was pale, but no wonder because of him always wearing that damn turtleneck.  
His focus once again went to John, watching him slowly but gracefully swim back and forth, splashing water everywhere.   
If only he could join.  
Play in the water with him.  
Have a swimming contest.  
And give him a kiss…  
Fuck stop thinking about John.  
He took another breath, and looked at Rose and Kanaya, who were playfully swimming around, splashing water at each other for a while, until Kanaya literally threw herself into Rose’s arms and gave her a kiss. Dave felt a smile creep onto his face, damn those girls were cute.   
And the fact that they could show it right now without consequences warmed his heart, he wish they could act like the cute couple they were at all times.  
And seeing the lovebirds happy made him forget about John for the moment.  
Fuck not again.  
Why does he think of his name all the time?  
Why does everything remind him of how cute he is?  
Fuck he was even gayer than usual today.  
Hopefully no one could see his tomato red face.  
And this was the only time Dave was actually grateful for not having a dick, because if he had one he would be dealing with a huge awkward boner right now.  
Thanks fucked up body.  
For once.  
This constant circle of Dave finding himself even more attracted to John as he was swimming continued for maybe an hour, until they all went up from the water and sat on towels they had brought with them, and begged Dave to get down from the hammock and sit with them.  
He obeyed, since hey, he could be close to his friends, without being in the damn water, a total win win.  
As the goofy and basic teens they were, they started playing truth or dare. It went fairly well, but Dave had to lie a few times to not give anything about himself away, which was understandable for him atleast. These guys would have done the same if they were in his seat, no question about it.  
But the thing that changed everything was when John refused to do a truth (about who is crush was, his cheeks had turned red, so apparently he had a crush somewhere), and then being forced to do a dare, which Jade was the one to command him anything.  
“Kiss the cutest person here in the group”.  
He heard John nervously gulp as he turned even redder.   
“You can't get out of this one dude”, Rose said and smiled.   
Dave had a slight panic.  
John gulped again before nodding.  
Seconds felt like hours, but also faster than ever, and the next thing Dave registered was a pair of lips softly pressed against his own, only for a second, but for him, a lifetime.  
John had kisses him.  
He was the most handsome one of the friend group according to John.  
And he couldn't believe it.

Time stood still has he experienced a small peace of heaven, he never wanted this to end...


	36. Frozen Time

Chapter 36: Frozen Time

Day 19 out of 28 of camp.

Time stood still, Dave’s senses registered everything that happened, the sound of birds that twittered and the sounds of their wings as the flew away, the sound of a cricket in the distance, a few flies in the distance, and heard the slow breathing from his friends (shit he had forgotten they were there, he had completely been dragged into dreamland, but could you blame him?), while the most unimaginable thing was currently happened to him.  
His lips were softly pressed against John's, in such a wonderful way that he never wanted to end.  
It felt like a small beautiful eternity, even though in reality the kiss probably only lasted a second, but it was the best fucking second in his entire life, like a dance of emotions that spread across his whole body, a feeling he’s never felt.  
If just crushing on him was a feeling, that was nothing compared to this, and he wanted to have his goofy boy in his arms forever, and just kiss him..  
This couldn't be real, it had to be a dream, but as John quickly pulled away and saw his blush, and nervous look. He began to blush too. Like a lot  
He quickly gulped, and secretly pinches his hand, waiting for the realization of it being a (wonderful and amazing but sadly still not real), dream. But the nothingness never came.  
Rather, the pinching hurt.  
It hurt.  
Oh god it hurt.  
Wait it fucking hurt.  
Which meant…  
This was not a dream.  
This was reality.  
He had really been kissed.  
He had fucking been kissed for real.  
By the glorious John Egbert.  
It was the aftermath of a game of truth and dare which most people wouldn't have liked to be their first kiss with their crush, since the kisses mostly happened because of dares, but it wasn’t a dare that said “kiss Dave”, it was a dare that said “kiss the cutest person here”, which changed exactly everything about this situation.  
The cutest person.  
Dave was John’s cutest person, and he just couldn't believe it at all. He just looked straight into his sky blue eyes (and nearly drowned a little) and began shaking a little, and then a lot, all feelings overwhelming him at once, as his still couldn't comprehend the entire situation (like what had it been, two seconds? Five?), as his friends all started staring at them, in this unbearable silence. He saw Jade smiling a little, revealing her buck teeth before cupping her hands over her mouth, Karkat’s mouth was wide open (like it wouldn't surprise him if a swarm of flies flew in there), and Rose and Kanaya who were holding hands, were both completely speechless. And so was Dave himself. He didn't know what to say, and apparently John felt the same since he also just stared at nothing, probably wondering what he had just done.  
He saw John quickly gasp for air before looking down at the ground, his face redder than before.  
“I’m so sorry. Please I’m so sorry”.  
Wait why was he sorry? And was that tears?   
“I’m so so sorry, pl-please forgive me, I had too. I had to okay and now I’m so sorry, so sorry please I had too”, he said, repeating the stuff he’d just said, like if he didn't register that he had already said them.  
Was he nervous?  
He shakes like crazy at least, so probably.  
He sat there in silence as John cried as their friends watched them, for god knows how long, no one said a word the entire time, probably thinking this was a conversation between Dave and John, which it was, but the silence still was uneasy, especially with a crying John beside him.  
Why was John sorry? Why was he crying? But he had to do it? And was sorry?  
He gulped.  
“W-why…”, he began, which made John cry even more, it looked like he was unable to breathe, like he had just seen a terrifying ghost and died of shock.  
“I’M SO SORRY!”, he screamed, before taking a few fast breaths, did he even get any air? Dave hoped he did. Seriously John crying like this, it made him want to cry too. “Please don’t h-hate me…”.  
Hate him?  
Why would Dave hate him?   
He loved him.  
His feelings for John was the opposite of hate, he would rather die than hating John. Like he was the one that had been hiding a seriously huge fucking crush for almost three weeks, and now that crush had kissed him, so why would he hate him?  
“Why would I… hate you?”, he slowly started to ask, pronouncing every word before saying them, as he tried to overcome the huge shock, from both the (amazing) kiss, and seeing his bucktoothed dream boy freak out.  
John’s sobbing ended for a split second, as he slowly lifted his head, glasses almost falling off as he made shy eye contact with Dave. He looked so sad and Dave just wanted to take over his all of his sadness. John didn't deserve to cry, not his precious John. He would do anything for him to stop crying. Seeing him cry was like torture.  
“You… don't hate me?”, he asked, so quite that Dave almost missed it.  
He felt the tension build up even more, their friends still just watching their conversation, unable to say a thing.   
“Of course I don’t hate you, why would you think that?”, he asked.  
“B-because…. because I kissed you?”, he said, once again looking down at the ground.  
“Why… would I hate you for that?”, Dave asked before gulping.  
John was afraid Dave hated the kiss?  
Well there he was dead wrong.  
He saw John close his eyes, taking a deep breath, before answering everything so nervously fast so Dave barely heard him.  
“Yes because I really really like you and have done since the first day of camp because you’re amazing and everything but I've been to shy to tell you, but you probably don't like me and I know you know I'm bi but I'm afraid now that you know that you’ll only see me as someone who stalks you to be in a relationship and think I'm a weirdo because well everything really and I’m afraid you don't wanna be my friend anymore now, but I just had to kiss you because keeping my crush a secret was becoming overwhelming okay, I’m so sorry for kissing you”.  
Wow…  
Had John just confessed?  
When Dave had been the one hiding a crush for weeks, thinking John didn't like him at all.  
But here they were, John crying in front of him, with a live confession, thinking that he hated him, but he didn't.  
So he took John’s hand, and as he looked up at him, he leaned closer, and once again their lips were pressed together, this time for a few seconds, as a dance of harmony was running through Dave’s body, his heart beating faster then humanly possible, and as they parted, they only stared at each other, forgetting that their friends were watching them.   
They were in their own little world, and Dave smiled at his dream boy.  
“I love you too Egbert”, was the only thing he said, and a smile spread across John’s face before more tears rolled out of his eyes, as he leaned on for a tight hug, crying on Dave’s shoulder.  
“Sssshh. Cry all you want, I’m here for you”...

 


	37. Will You Be My Boyfriend?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized that I forgot to write about something I was 100 % sure I did so that'll be a flashback in next chapter.

Chapter 37: Will You Be My Boyfriend?

Day 19 out of 28 of camp.

Dave couldn't believe it. He had been kissing John, not once but twice, right after he had gotten a crush confession from him (and he had gotten a confession back, which Dave still not knowing how he had to guts to do it), something he would had never dreamt of, but here he was, right in front of his dream boy, with tears still rolling down his cheeks, but Dave had also been crying a little, mostly due to the shock, and after the long the long hug as they just tried to figure out what had just happened, the shoulder of Dave’s hoodie was wet with tears. Not that he complained, he was close to John.  
His John.  
As he simply smiled at him, there was only silence for a while, until Jade’s voice broke the silence.  
“Oh. My. God. YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER. I SHIP IT, YOU’RE JOHNDAVE NOW”.  
She sounded like if she was talking about her otp from an anime like Yuuri on Ice or something, and not like she was talking about real life people (because they were real and not figures from fiction, that would just be weird, if they were the world would probably end this very moment), but Dave didn't mind that much.   
Hearing that she thought he and John would be a cute couple made him blush like never before, and also unexpectedly made him answer.  
“Yeah I think so too, but don't write any fanfics about us okay”.  
Had he just said that?  
At Least John was laughing to that line, so that was probably a good thing, and the laugh made his entire body melt by love sickness.  
His smile grew wider, and John also grew an even bigger, goofier smile that showed off the buckteeth, and he heard his shy laughing over Jade’s continuing shipping comparisons (apparently they were like Yuuri and Victor, Percy and Pierre, and Garnet according to her), and that talking actually made the awkward silence between the boys, well, a little less, awkward to say.  
He looked to the side and saw Rose and Kanaya just smiling like idiots like if they also shipped the newly formed JohnDave, just waiting for the next move too happen, all while being precious and holding hands still. Dave guessed he knew why they were so excited, they wouldn't be the only lgbt+ couple at camp (that they knew of), and Dave understood completely why they were so excited.   
Well now he could just hope he and John would actually get together, but fuck he was so nervous and didn't know what to say, and he couldn't make another line about fanfiction, could he?  
No Jade would probably write down his life story and publish it on the internet with a cheesy title like “Summer Camp Secrets” or something, that fic would probably have way too many fucking fourth wall breaks.  
It was best to not make any more fanfic comments, for his own safety.  
He felt a hand touch his own, and the next thing he knew, John was shyly holding one of his hands, as they continued to stare at each other with a magnetic gaze, John probably had trouble thinking about how to continue this conversation too, but just awkwardly smiling at each other like idiots while holding hands was getting nice.  
He really like the touch of John’s hand, and he never got tired of that shy smile, it was like he was falling in love all over again.  
An amazing feeling to say the least.  
Karkat, who had said nothing at all until this point, made a huge fake cough to get everyone’s attention, and it worked because in less then a second Dave’s head was turned in his direction.  
“Well are you fuckers gonna stay there like brain dead idiots all day or are you gonna ask each other out or something soon?”, he asked, like he also secretly shipped them, because he well, encouraged them going out.  
Dave saw John close his eyes and taking a deep breath, before speaking.  
“Dave, do you wanna be my boyfriend?”, he asked shyly.  
Oh.  
My.  
Fucking.  
God.  
Did he just?  
Yes he fucking did.  
John just asked Dave if he wanted to get together.  
He didn't care if the pinch earlier had hurt, this was definitely a dream. But even if it was a dream, he nodded.  
“I would be honored too Egderp”.  
Once again, there was silence as the newly formed couple held hands, not one hand, but both, as they smiled as they experienced one of the happiest moments in their lives, and for a third time in this short period, kissed.  
This one was a little longer and more passionate, and Dave knew he would never get tired of that feeling, the feeling of kissing his John.  
His John…  
The rest of the time they stayed at the lake, everyone was having a good time, John and Dave sat next to each other, John’s head on Dave’s shoulder, and he could feel his heart beat faster.  
He hadn't had such a nice time ever really, and on the way back to the camp, he and John held hands the entire time, the same way Rose and Kanaya did, making use of all the time they had to act like a couple before sadly arriving back at a camp where there were homophobes, especially in Dave’s cabin, but that was a problem for later.  
As long as the entire friend group was together, it would be less noticeable, since the friend group also had people from both the binary genders (and if someone was a closeted nonbinary person they might be a friend group from all over the spectrum).  
But well when you had finally gotten a boyfriend and had been together for only an hour, and then having to hide it, well now he knew why Rose and Kanaya were all lovey dovey at all times they got.  
He would probably become like that with John.  
And he still couldn't get over the fact that they were together, it was an amazing dream come true.  
To say, the rest of the day the group were together, chilling, talking and eating their dinner together, and as nighttime approached and Dave just had jumped into his bed and casually hidden his binder, he saw John’s and casually but yet secretly slide down, and Dave grasped it.  
He held John’s soft grip for a moment before he heard him whisper goodnight and withdrew.  
As he drifted away to sleep he had a smile on his face.  
He had a boyfriend...


	38. Morning

Chapter 38: Morning

Day 20 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up to the small ticklish motion of a pair of lips lightly touching his cheek, and a careful pat on the head.  
“Morning Dave”.  
“Morning John”, he said as he opened his eyes, still not believing that he had been awaken by a cheek kiss, by John, his boyfriend.  
It felt strange but amazing to think of John as his boyfriend.  
He looked around the cabin and saw that it was empty, and before he was able to open his mouth to ask where everyone was, he got the answer.  
“Everyone's at breakfast, I let you sleep in a little because you looked so cute, wow it's so weird but nice to finally be able to say that because like yes you’re cute and yes and well I'm rambling again but it's because I have so much to say”.  
A laugh escaped from Dave’s mouth as a smile appeared.  
“Ramble all you want Egderp, it's cute”.  
John’s face immediately reddened a little and Dave loved it. They acted like lovestruck middle schoolers from stereotypical teen movies but he couldn't care less, if this was what it felt like to be in a new relationship, he loved it. The feeling of not being forced to hide his feelings was indescribable, in a good way.  
“Do you wanna eat breakfast here? I can get some if you want”.  
Dave just nodded, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his new boyfriend since they wouldn't be able to show much affection when around most campers (which sucked ass because homophobes were literally the worst). John did his signature bucktoothed smile before leaving the cabin to get pancakes (he didn't say it but Dave was sure it would be pancakes, like seriously John loved pancakes), and as soon as he left, Dave went into the bathroom to change, and as he saw his bare chest anxiety filled up inside of him as he wanted to rip the lumps off.  
When was he gonna tell John?  
Would he even love him anymore?  
Just thinking about all that made his heart ache.  
But he thought back about what had happened days prior and hoped John wouldn't react so different.

-Flashback to when Rose and Kanaya found out that Dave was trans that the writer forgot to write about but realize he needs in the story-

“Hello Dave how is it?”, he heard Rose ask as she opened the door to his cabin.  
He didn't answer, he had just had a huge anxiety attack and needed to get out of bed without making a mess, he could feel that his blood had tainted the sheets and he was terrified.  
“We just wanted to check on you because our team got off activities early”, Kanaya said. “Is everything… alright?”.  
No.  
No it fucking wasn't.  
Everything was fucked up and wrongly twisted.  
Without realizing it, tears ran down from his eyes as he had problems with breathing, he couldn't take it right now, and he couldn't stop the cry.  
Everything became blurry after that but he remembered Rose and Kanaya trying to calm him, shoosing him, finding out about what happened once they pulled down the cover, hugging Dave as his panic had became even worse. Kanaya had hugged him and told him everything was gonna be fine, both telling him he was brave, as Rose changed his sheets and put them in a bag (he would later found out that she told the staff she had bleed through the sheets and that they were hers), and Kanaya went through his clothes and carefully led him to the bathroom, looking away as she handed him items, asking every other second if he knew what happened, if he was okay, and reassured him how manly he was.  
It had all happened in such a fast blur, but once he was back in bed, with clean new sheets and clean new boxers, he let the last of his tears out as the girls spent minute after minute quietly promising that his secret was safe.  
Two of his friends knew, and they didn't mock him, they just wanted to make him feel comfortable and ease his dysphoria.  
It was like they saw nothing strange about him at all…

-Back to the present-

The way they had found out, was really odd and weird and hurt Dave’s head when he thought about it. But at least they too suffered from periods and had empathy for the fact that periods was hell for cis girls, so just imagine what it's like for a dude.   
If a cis dude had found him like that thought…  
He didn't wanna think about it too much. That was one of the reasons he was scared to tell John about that fact that he was trans.  
Yes John was bi, but what if he started to see Dave as a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend?  
He couldn't even bear the thought of that, he already felt a huge weight on his shoulders, and was unable to breathe for a split second.  
That goddamn dysphoria always destroying his day.  
Well he knew he had to tell him someday, but today was definitely not the day, that would be a problem for the future. There was only a week of camp left anyway so he could tell John via a text or something, because no fucking way he was gonna tell him that eye to eye. All bad reactions he could receive ran through his mind.  
Nope.  
Definitely not telling him eye to eye, if he told him by texts he could at least ignore him if the response was bad.  
Ugh.  
Why did he even need to think about these things?  
It all fucking sucked.  
When he finally had gotten his beautiful boyfriend, nothing was gonna break them apart, and John knowing might do it. He might be paranoid, but hey he had experience with lots of bullies because of this shit, so he was not taking any risks, not now.


	39. Text to Bro

Chapter 39: Text to Bro

Day 20 out of 28 of camp

“Dave! I’m back with breakfast!”, he heard John about as he opened the cabin door carrying a huge bag of food.  
“Fucking sweet, what did you get?”, he asked, as John sat down beside him, giving him a small peck on the cheek, which made Dave’s face red.  
“Well I took pancakes”.  
“Of course you did”, he said and smiled at his dorky boyfriend.  
“Yeah but I also took a few different kinds of sandwiches, and also cereal but I couldn't bring any milk so just cereal. Oh and a bag of Doritos for later”.  
“Sweet man, let's dig in, let's see if those sandwiches are made for the Strider man, we'll see, bacon, cheese and egg, score for me”, he said before taking a bite, the still warm consistence warming his mouth with amazing flavors.  
He must say, this camp really had good food.  
The sandwich was soon gone, soon to be followed by another one as John wolfed down his pancakes, like seriously wolfed. He ate them like he had never seen food in his entire life before.  
Such a dedication to a sort of food.  
But well he guess he were the same to chips, but even he got tired of them after a while, when John seemed to not have lost any interest at all in those pancakes.  
He went back to the food, drinking an energy drink he had under his bed, because he was to lazy to get a cup and fill it with water, but well extra energy have never hurt anybody right.  
But not like he would need the energy today.  
The whole camp was having a lake day, swimming, doing swim contest, having free periods in the water for fun, diving contests.  
All of the shit Dave couldn't do.  
Not that he minded, he could relax all day, and as soon as John left, he could take off his binder and relax in bed, the only real reason he had put it on in the first place was to not worry about John seeing his chest while eating.  
His chest really needed a day without binding, so it didn't complain at all at the opportunity.  
They soon finished the breakfast, and John started to change out of his camping attire into his swimming trunks (damn he looked good, he became even gayer than he already was at that moment).  
“Good luck at swim out their, kick their asses”, Dave said, and John kisses his cheek.  
“I'll be back later”, he said.  
“See ya”, Dave said, and next second, he was alone, the sound of the door to the cabin closing as John was seen through the window, walking away.  
Dave yawned, took up his pyjamas and went to the bathroom to change, not taking any risks with changing in the middle of the cabin.  
It was so fucking nice to get out of the binder, and he quickly was back in his warm comfy bed, all is clothes put away and binder at it’s usual hiding place.  
Time for some serious relaxing only lazy teens are able to perform, aka his favorite sport. Seriously if it was real he’d earn a gold medal.  
He put his headphones in, and put shuffle on his Spotify has his music began playing.   
He just stared up at nothing during Gorillaz, TOP, Watsky, and a few other artist, almost falling asleep as he just enjoyed the beats of his favorite artists. He really needed this day for relaxing, especially since the last ones had been really hectic and tiring, but physically and mentally.  
After a while if just listening to the music, almost falling asleep, he took his phone up and ran through his apps, checked Instagram for ironic purposes, liking a few things he found interesting, like some stranger that had made fanart of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from his comic.  
It was so shitty made so Dave wanted to rip his eyes out, in other words, it was perfect.  
He went on to Twitter, just simply checking in, tweeting “Kraft Mayo”, publishing it and then simply logging off seconds later, before he could see if he got any response.  
As he began to get bored by using his phones, he suddenly remembered his Bro and the fact that they hadn't talked for days, so he logged into pesterchum.

……

8:57 AM

turntechGodhead began pestering timaeusTestified

TG: yo bro you there  
TG: im bored out of my mind and need to talk with someone  
TG: are you shitting me i can see that you are online are you fucking recording puppet porn directly to the pesterchum forum or what  
TG: of my fucking god you are arent you no wonder you almost got arrested so many times  
TG: it says that you are online and doing a live video now when i actually checked   
TG: i aint even gonna click that shit  
TT: Hey bro sorry to make you wait, we stopped the video like only seconds ago, and I can only stay a while, gotta clean the puppets and get ready for the next tape.  
TG: how are you still my legal guardian  
TT: Probably some sort of witchcraft.  
TT: Anyway you haven't texted in a few days, I got you a new game at GameStop btw so you would forgive me for forcing you to camp.  
TG: camps actually not that bad but what game  
TT: Persona 5, bought it to be ironic because of anime style but damn when I looked it up, you will fucking love it unironically.  
TT: Also wait what?  
TT: Camp’s not bad anymore? You called it a living shithole a few days ago?  
TG: well most people still are a pain in the ass but not everybody  
TT: Well I take that as you’ve got friends.  
TG: yep  
TT: Well cool, what state are the from?  
TG: california new york and a weird island  
TT: Okay tell me more. And all secrets. Any boy you like?  
TG: fuck no  
TG: well okay yes  
TG: i like someone   
TT: Oh tell me, I gotta know about my future bro in law am I right.  
TG: fuck off  
TG: well its john and hes my boyfriend now  
TT: Well congrats there little bro, I’ll bring cake and gift him a penis puppet so he’ll remember his future brother in law.  
TG: if you do that youll never see the sun ever again  
TT: Well okay fine.  
TT: Gtg now btw.  
TG: ok bye

9:18 AM

timaeusTestified stopped pestering turntechGodhead

……

Dave just sighed, before laying down to take a nap, now he was real tired.


	40. Boyfriend Stuff

Chapter 40: Boyfriend stuff

Day 21 out of 28 of camp.

It's just a week left of camp.  
For Dave, that felt really strange to think about.  
He had hated this place with every part of his body, and had cursed Bro for putting him here, but it had actually already got three weeks? Three out of four?  
That was fucking sick to be honest, it still felt like the first week.  
How was this possible?  
Like it felt like he arrived yesterday?  
Like he really wanted to go home but he didn't wanna leave his friends (oh clique), so he had mixed feelings about camp almost being over.  
Well when he got home he could at least be a normal teen boy playing video games all day and making memes, like he had almost missed the uprising of fidget spinners and he needed one for ironic purposes. A red one of course. Imagine all the YouTube videos with cringy music he could make. It would be a complete shitty meme ascension.  
A yawn escaped him as he took up his phone to change the playlist on Spotify, the top list really wasn't for him (who even liked that shit), so he put on one of his special designed lists with sick beats, Watsky being the first that played.  
Nice, he was really in the mood for some rap.  
Song after song passed, and so did time. Dave spent god knows how long listening to music and eating a bag of sour cream chips under that was under his bed.  
“Look the f*ggot is still here”, he suddenly heard Justin say. When had he gotten here? Like seriously?  
He was shirtless, wet drops of water dripping from his hair onto the ground, it was obvious he was back from swim.  
Why the fuck did it have to be him of all people in the whole god damned world? Like why did fate wanna fuck with him so much?  
Like fate what the fuck are you doing?  
“Hey are you dead or, you pussy?”, he continued.  
“No I can hear you absolutely fine, but I only answer people that are actually competent”, he said, before raising the volume of his music.  
He saw that Justin tried to figure out what he had meant for a moment, the typical dumb bully clique, but once he did, he just started to change and then left the cabin as soon he could.  
Thank God.  
More sweet alone time for Dave, this is way better than Justin destroying his day.  
He pressed the the volume button and groaned as he realized it already was at max, but it was probably for the best, he would become deaf if this kept up.  
He was alone for a few more minutes, just relaxing, before he felt a wet tap on his shoulder, when he looked up all he saw was sky blue eyes and the bucktoothed grin he loved more than anything. John stood there, dripping wet from the water, with a towel around his shoulders.  
Fuck Dave was way too gay for this.  
“Hey dude, how did swim go?”, he asked as he took out his earbuds and paused the music, so that he could listen to his boyfriend.  
“It went pretty great, came seventh place in the swim contest”.  
“Nice”.  
“Mind if I sit down here?”.  
“Of course I do, you’re dripping wet”.  
“Oh right, I forgot about that”.  
“Just get dry and you can sit down”.  
“Okay, one second”.  
John immediately went to work with his towel, and soon he was dry, and literally jumped into Dave’s bed, laying down beside him, which made Dave blush a little, no, who was he kidding. He blushed a lot.  
“So what have you done while I’ve been swimming?”.  
“Just listened to music and stuff, the usual. Also trying not to die in this fucking Texas heat we call summer, like Mother Nature turn it down a notch.”.  
“Yeah if is pretty warm, even after taking a swim and such, I’m still sweating. The summer in New York is the perfect temperature for me, warm but not too warm so you feel like you’ll suffocate or faint from the air”.  
“That's fucking neat, a summer without heat strokes, that's something I wanna experience”.  
“You’ve got heatstrokes before?”.  
“Oh yes. Many times, my bro takes me into the ER like once per summer for heatstrokes. It’s a wonder I haven't gotten one here yet, this cabin doesn't even have an air conditioner for fucks sake”.  
“Yeah, it makes me wanna go shirtless at all times, it's so hot here”.  
Oh John if you only knew…  
That was Dave’s biggest wish in the entire world, and just the thought of him not being flat pained him.  
He wanted to be flat more than anything in the goddamn world.  
“Yeah same but I’m not much for being shirtless in public, I just don't like it that much”.  
Don't like it that much?  
Pft.  
Lies. All lies.  
How was John even falling for this?  
“Okay, but drink lots of water or something okay, I don't want you to get another heatstroke”.  
“Sure will”, he said before yawning once, and then once again, as he answered his boyfriend.  
There was silence for a while, as the two boys laid down on the bed, just listening to the tweets from birds outside of the windows, enjoying the peace and quiet and so on.  
“It’s only a week left”, John then said. “Only a week left before camp is over and we go home. What do you think about that?”.  
“Well it’ll be nice going home and live like a normal teen for the rest of the break, video games, memes and music and such, normal nice things, but I'll miss having you around. Your bucktoothed smile is kind of addicting”, he said, giving the dork a smile, while carefully putting a finger on John’s glasses to tease him.  
“I’ll miss you and your shades too, was the answer.  
“I wish you lived closer so we could meet more often”, Dave said.  
“Yeah… I swear if necessary I’ll pay for a flight so you can visit me in New York during a vacation. I may live in the suburban outskirts, but you’re in the big city after only a short drive, I could show you around all my favorite places”.  
“Sure, you as a tourist guide is something I wanna see”, he said before giving John a small peck on the lips, and then smiled again, as Dave suddenly felt John’s hand carefully gripping his own hand. Dave became even more red as he held hands with his boyfriend.  
“Only if you’re my tourist guide next time I come to Texas, I really wanna see more of it than the camp”.  
“Sure, I’ll show you all my favorite places both in town and further away from town, like road trips and such, and also go on McDonald's dates and become sick of too many roller coasters at amusement parks, in true Texas teen style. And I’m sure my bro also would like to show you his favorite places, like his favorite burger joint and the weird puppet show that also sells cool ironic stuff, I love that shop and there’s a skate shop next door. Just don't listen if you think the thing he want to show you is illegal, because it probably is, or just really fucking weird”.   
“Pft okay I will”.  
They laid together in Dave’s bed, just casually small talking about random stuff, enjoying their sweet alone time, now that they were alone in the cabin.  
“Anyway want a Coke?”, John asked as he got up and took one from under Dave’s bed.  
“Sure dude”, he said, as he opened the can, the sound of fizz being a symphony for his ears.  
They shared the can, it was emptied in an instant, and soon John let out a loud burp, which made Dave laugh as he let out one of his own.  
“Hey mine was louder”.  
“Dream on”.  
The boys broke out in a laughter, burping at each other. This was honestly so relaxing for Dave, boys being boys, just chilling together, while also being close boyfriends, like the could do anything together. It was relaxing.  
All this time near John, Dave could never get enough of him.  
“Wanna spoon?”, he heard John ask shyly.  
“Sure”, Dave answered, as he became the little spoon so that John wouldn't feel his flesh lumps, he held his arms in a position so John felt arms, not chest, and it was still quiet comfortable to spoon.   
Dave loved it, the feeling of John breathing on his neck, he could stay like this forever.  
“I love you dude”, he said.  
“I love you too. Let's cuddle for as long as we can”.  
“Sounds perfect”.


	41. Dave?

Chapter 41: Dave?

Day 22 out of 28

“Hey dudes do you wanna do something?”, Dave heard Rose ask.  
“Yeah you left us all alone yesterday, every time we asked if you wanted to go and do something you said nope and just kept spooning. And it's morning and you’re already spooning again. C’mon let's go and do something”, Kanaya said.  
Dave who was in John’s warm arms considered the offer. Cuddling with his cute John, or growing friendships with friends he finally had.  
Tough choice, he liked both, but he had spent the entirety of last day cuddling with John.  
Well he guess doing stuff was nice too, but he couldn't decide himself.  
“You decide John”, he said, yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.  
“C’mon John say yes, please it’ll be fun”, Jade said, smiling before adjusting her anime dog ears as she smiled.  
“Well sure, I love hanging out with all of you. Let’s do something”, John said, sitting up in bed.  
“Yeah hanging is neat, even if Mr Shouty is here”, Dave said, pointing at Karkat who had (surprisingly) been standing quite until now.  
“Fuck off”.  
“C’mon Karkat, we all know you’re only in this gang because you’re crushing on Jade”, Dave said. It was meant as a complete joke, as he knew Karkat had a secret crush, but the blush the former on his cheeks.  
“OH MY GOD YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON HER DON’T YOU?!?”, he shouted as she laughed, which made Karkat even more red.  
This caused everyone to break out in laughs, except the embarrassed Karkat.  
“Do you want go swimming in the lake?”, Kanaya asked to change the topic, and everyone nodded to her idea.  
“Yeah”.  
“Nice”  
“Sounds great”.  
Dave also nodded, even though swimming wasn't something he would do, but if the others wanted to swim, so be it. The hammock was nice after all, and he could relax.  
“Okay, let's all go and grab our swim gear”, Rose said and soon everyone disappeared, leaving John and Dave.  
“Dude want me to carry something for you, since I won't swim and all that?”.  
“Sure, but I’ll bring an extra pair of swim trunks in case you want to swim later okay”, he said as he took out a pair of crimson red swim trunks from his suitcase, the exact same model as the blue ones he’d been sporting the entire camp.  
“Thanks dude. I can carry a bag of snacks too if you wanna”.  
“You don't have too but if you wanna there’s a bag over in one of my bags”.  
“Sure thing”, he said, getting the bag as he put down some Coke, Redbull and a few bags of Doritos in case they stayed there long and missed lunch.  
They left the cabin and began waiting for the other friends, Jade being the first to be back as her cabin was one of the closest.  
“Guys, you know about what happened to Karkat?”.  
“Dude don't make him feel bad, it was just meant as a joke and I didn't know that he might actually have a crush on you”, Dave said, feeling a little regret for saying that joke. Because damn what are the odds?  
“Well, do you really think he likes me?”.  
Wait what.  
“Well isn't it obvious?”, John asked, Dave still standing still.  
“Should I try to ask him out?”, she asked, a shy blush on her.  
Wait what.  
What.  
Did Jade have a crush on Karkat?  
The small ginger McShouty gremlin edition?  
That was certainly unexpected.  
But he fell for a nerd so love worked in strange ways.  
“Sure”, Dave said, not knowing what else to say.  
“Okay”, she said, blushing a bit.  
A few seconds of silence from the three teens, until they saw Rose and Kanaya in the distance, Rose was carrying a bag with something, which couldn't be swimwear? Since the girls usually put the swimwear under their regular clothes?  
And just seconds after the lovely lesbian couple (trademark) was spotted, Dave saw ginger hair in the distance, which meant Karkat too was on the way, walking in his huge turtleneck with a pair of gray swim trunks in his hand. Once they all were gathered again, they immediately walked to the forest, and as soon as they were surrounded by trees, Rose took up the thing from the bag, which was a huge plastic kiddy pool ring with a small neck and then the smiling face of a dinosaur sticking its tongue out. It sure was cute, and would be nice for the ones swimming, but where did it come from?  
“Rose, where did you get that?”, he heard John ask, merely seconds before he was going to.  
“I ordered it online a two days ago, it arrived in a FedEx crate last night. I thought it’s be fun”.  
“Okay… wait how do you get a FedEx crate delivered to a camp? And don't you need a credit card to buy stuff online? And this isn't your home address? Like how did they actually deliver it?”, John said, asking question after question.  
“It's better if you don't think about it, trust me, I saw what happened”, Kanaya said, facing off in the distance for a bit, which made the others in the gang completely silent.  
Okay what had Rose done?  
Practiced dark magic and forced the FedEx delivery guy to deliver a dinosaur pool ring if he wanted to keep his soul and not getting fed to some kind of horrorterrors from multiple universes or something?  
Well he highly doubted it but seriously how the fuck did Rosd manage this?  
Okay maybe Kanaya was right and they were better off without the answer.  
Yep probably.

The weird silence soon ended as they saw their lake (which was now their iconic spot) and all of them except Dave literally threw everything they had on the ground, ripped their clothes off and jumped into the refreshing cool water, splashing Dave who was still on land.  
“Hey Dave throw in the dino!”, John shouted and Dave did as such, throwing the green floating dinosaur into the lake, and saw his friends taking turns trying to get up on it, which resulted in a small fight over who would have it.  
“Guess I’ll have to order more online”, Rose said in a mutter.  
“BUY A GIRAFFE!”, Jade shouted as she dived into the water from the side.  
“No fucking giraffe, she should buy a crab, those are the most true and badass animals in the entire universe, the are superior to those giraffes”, Karkat said.  
Crabs?  
Are you fucking kidding me?  
It was enough that he sometimes walked in a crab like squat like if he had been raised by a real crab or something. What was up with Karkat and crabs?  
He probably didn't wanna know, like how it was with Rose and that FedEx crate.  
His friends went back to just having fun and swimming, as Dave relaxed in the hammock, listening to music that was on speaker, making the sick beats be heard so that everyone could enjoy them.  
This continued for god knows how long, his friends taking breaks from swimming, to eat chips and drink stuff, Dave also took breaks from the hammock during those times so he could share the Doritos with his friends, and because he really craved a redbull at the moment.  
This continued for hours, until Kanaya and Rose said they had to go because they were hungry (junk food all long gone), and Karkat joined them, which caused another chain reaction of teens leaving because Jade wanted to try to ask Karkat out, and John wanted to see how it went.  
Which led to Dave being alone at the lake.  
It was so warm, and he was sweating like an idiot. That cold water looked so refreshing.  
Fuck it.  
He was alone, he deserved a short swim.  
He took off his pants and boxers, and put on the red swim trunks he had borrowed from John, before taking off his shirt and his binder.   
He felt a sense of freedom, being topless and all, as he jumped into the lake. The water truly was cool and refreshing, and he swimmed a few laps back and forth. It was so nice, after weeks of dying of heat he had a swim. This was paradise.  
When he got tired of swimming, he just let himself float around, as he looked up at the clouds.  
This was perfect.  
Until…  
“Dave?”.


	42. Why Would I Hate You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The t slur is used once, but censored.

Chapter 42: Why Would I Hate You?

Day 22 out of 28 of camp.

“Dave?”.  
Fuck.  
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.  
John stood in front of Dave.  
And John was looking at Dave.  
And Dave was topless.  
Dave stood topless in front of his boyfriend that didn't know he was trans, his chest was now exposed.  
“You have boobs”.  
Fuck fuck fuck.  
What the fuck was he thinking? Swimming like that. He was so fucking stupid, he had destroyed everything, and no one could say he hadn't, because John was currently staring at the small flesh lumps Dave was cursed with.  
There was not a single good thing with this.  
Fuck that the actual fuck had he done?  
Like how did he even think this was a good idea?  
He had passed so well, and gotten the sweetest boyfriend in all of history.  
And now he knew Dave’s dark secret.  
Not like this.  
He knew that he would have to tell John eventually, and that he probably would break up with him when finding out, but not like this. He wanted to be the one telling John.  
But now it was too late, he knew, and who knew what the hell he would say now?  
There was a chance he'd tell everyone. That the camp leaders would place him in one of the girl’s cabins.   
No.  
Just no.  
Please anything but that.  
He wanted to scream, but his voice couldn't make a sound.  
He wanted to run, but he had no control over his legs.  
It was like he didn't have control over his body at all.  
He couldn't breathe, his heart beating too fast, he felt the urge to cry, but he couldn't even control those muscles.  
He wanted to fall to the ground and die, and it felt like fate answered him.  
He became dizzy, and he tried to breathe more than anything, but nothing. No air entered his lungs as he needed it.  
He stopped hearing, there was just a high pitched ring in his ears, and he lost his ability to see, and felt the pain as he felt on to the ground, drifting out of consciousness as panic overwhelmed him.

…

_All Dave saw was a white light, no matter where he turned. He couldn't even see his own body, or feel it._   
_Did he even have a body?_   
_And if he didn't, while could he think?_   
_But then he heard it._   
_Countless of laughs, from strangers and friends, before they appeared in the distance, all pointing at him while laughing._   
_What were they pointing at?_   
_He suddenly felt like he had a body and could move around, so his gaze went down to his chest. It was way bigger than usual, and now he could see, this was what the people was laughing about._   
_His deformity._   
_The thing he should be ashamed of._   
_The thing everyone at his school already teased him about._   
_The laughs came from every single direction, Dave tried to run, but the laughs never stopped, in fact they became clearer no matter what direction he ran too._   
_He could never escape._   
_This was his punishment._   
_He ran, and ran… until._   
_He fell onto the white ground, and as he tried to get up, he fell back down, an unknown force made it impossible for him to escape._   
_The force was his chest, two heavy stones were on the floor, chained with chains stronger than anything, and those chains were part of his chest._   
_His own chest was the thing that made him unable to run._   
_He was trapped, and all the laughs became louder and louder, and the laughs slowly turned into whispers._   
_“What is that thing?”._   
_“Liar”._   
_“Poser”_   
_“Tr*nny”._   
_“Fucking pussy”._   
_“Girl”_   
_“Fake boy”._   
_“Fucked up lesbian”._   
_“Hellspawn”._   
_“You’re going to hell you fucked up girl”._   
_“Go and die”._   
_“What the fuck are you?”._   
_“It’s an it. It’s a fucked animal”._   
_But the worst one was…_   
_“I thought I dated a boy, not a freak”..._   
_“Freak…”._   
_“Freak…”._   
_“Freak…”._   
_He felt something wet run down his cheeks, tears?_   
_But he thought he couldn't control the ant muscles at all right now?_   
_And no he couldn't, as he tried, he couldn't even move an inch. It was just his eyes that stared leaking, as the huge boulder in his stomach grew bigger and bigger for every second, for every thing he heard about himself, and for every laugh._   
_No._   
_Please no._   
_John stood over him, giving him a smile as he said the worst thing of all._   
_“How could I ever have dated this thing?”._   
_And everything became black again, all they could see or sense was the wet tears still running down his cheeks._

…

“Dave! DAVE ANSWER ME!”.  
Screaming? Was that really screaming?  
“DAVE!!!”.  
John? Yes that was John. But why was he worried? He had just told him how much of a pathetic loser he thought Dave was, so why he worried about him at all?  
He started to feel his body again, but was too afraid to move, and only concentrated on, the tears?  
He was still crying, but it felt different.  
“Dave please wake up”.  
Wake up?  
Was that before?  
It then flashed in front of his eyes.  
A dream.  
That was a weird dream, John hadn't said any of that stuff, but as he cried in his dream, he had started crying as he was unconscious.   
Nothing in the dream was real.  
But he had still seen him chestless.  
Fuck.  
Why did fate hate him so much?  
He was shaking more than necessary, afraid of opening his eyes, to face John with whatever he had to say.  
They would definitely break up for sure, he had lied to John after all.  
It pained him more than he wanted to admit, but the sooner it happened, it would be over. So he opened his eyes, his red ones staring into the blue ocean that was the eyes of John.  
But why was John crying?  
“Dave you’re awake! I was so worried! Thank god that you're alright”, he shouted, giving him a tight hug, his tears falling down onto Dave’s chest.  
Wait, his chest?  
Why was John ignoring it when he was basically next to it?  
Why was he acting like nothing had happened?  
“John?”, he whispered, just to get a word out from him.  
“Oh Dave how’re you feeling? Please say you aren't hurt, I was so afraid”.  
What…  
“Why?”, Dave asked.  
“Why what?”.  
“Why are you acting like everything's normal? Why don't you hate me for lying? You know my secret now”, he said, even if it teared his hearts into thousand small pieces.  
“Dave…”.  
Silence.  
“I asked, why don't you hate me?”.  
“Why… would I hate you?”.  
No fucking way.  
“BECAUSE I’VE GOT BOOBS AND HID IT FROM EVERYONE SO NO ONE WOULD SAY I WAS A FREAK!”.  
There it was. He said it.  
“Why… why do you think I would be angry at that?”.  
“Didn't you see your own reaction when you saw me?”.  
“Well… yes I got shocked when I saw you, but why would I hate you?”.  
“Why wouldn't you hate me?”.  
“Dave I love you because you’re you. I don't care if you have boobs or not, or how your genitals look like, you’re my boyfriend and nothing will change. I just wished you would have trusted me enough to tell me. Nothing will ever make me see you as less of a boy, because you are one”.  
Wait what?  
Boyfriend…  
Boy...  
“So you mean… you don't hate me?”.  
“I could never hate you, I love you too much for that”, he said, and the next thing he felt was the lips of his lover pressed against his own.  
As they parted, they just looked into each other's eyes.  
“You’re… the first one that hasn't called me a freak…”.  
“You’re not a freak, trust me. But can we talk?”.

~ Thirty minutes later ~

“So you mean this is why you’ve avoided swimming with us the whole time? And because you changed alone in the bathroom and not with the others?”.  
“Yeah. If someone found out the leaders might find out and put me in a cabin for girls…”.  
“Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too”.  
“Thank you so much”.  
Both boys were sitting in the hammock, just talking about their feelings, and what had just happened, telling each other about everything.  
Dave’s head was placed on John’s chest, and then he realized a thing.  
He never put a shirt on after John found out.  
He was still topless, but John hadn't said a thing.  
He was just laying down and trying to comfort his boyfriend.  
He has been topless like any other cis dude, and John hadn't made a single comment about it.  
Later he found out it was because he thought he saw nothing wrong with Dave, and no matter how he looked, all of him was male in John’s eyes.  
He really didn't care that Dave was trans, and loved him like nothing had happened, which was more than Dave could progress, but in a good way.  
He felt acceptance.

 

 


	43. The Cat

Chapter 43: The Cat

Day 23 out of 28 of camp.

Dave woke up to a light but yet amazingly sweet kiss on his cheek, from his lovely John Egbert.  
“Morning Derp, why did you wake me up so early?”.  
“It's not early, you are the one who slept in, everyone’s at the dining hall eating breakfast. I went and grabbed some sandwiches and pancakes for us, they’re on the plate down at the floor”.  
“Nice”, Dave said as he sat up in bed and stretched his limbs, to awaken his body. “I’m just gonna change first then I’ll eat okay”.  
“Sure thing”.  
He jumped out of his bed, casually took his shirt off (well he didn't have a reason to hide from John anymore because he knew everything, so why not?) and crawled into his binder, before putting on the camp tshirt, since there would be Camp activities after lunch. He then changed into pants, and then sat down beside his boyfriend, took a sandwich and began eating.  
“So you decided to take chicken and lettuce sandwiches for breakfast today huh”, he said as he enjoyed the full taste of the sandwich and the lightly crunchy lettuce mixed with the chicken.  
“Yeah, peanut butter and jelly was getting a bit boring, don't you think?”.  
“Excuse me? That was getting boring? But you’ve eaten pancakes for three weeks straight. Like how the fuck did you manage that?”.  
“Well I just like pancakes okay, and I was raised with countless of Betty Crocker mixes, including pancakes so they have become part of my life. Don't judge me”.  
“Well you are already judged Mr, I just won't spread it”, he said, stealing a pancake from John’s plate, taking a huge bite from it before his boyfriend was able to react.  
“Hey that's mine!”.  
“Well it's mine now, suck it”, he said, taking another bite out of the pancake, just to taunt John a little.  
“My pancake…”.  
“Dude there's like five more on the plate, it's not a fucking pancake funeral. You really are from a fucking suburban Betty Crocker mix family ain't you?”.  
“I told you so”.  
“Well when I visit your dad better make more than pancakes okay, because not everyone are q pancake maniac like you”.  
“I'll see what I can do”, he said, and literally took the pancake that Dave was holding, he quickly took a huge bite from it as soon as he got it back, and tried to shove the entire thing down his throat like a hamster storing food.  
“Hey the fuck”.  
“You took my pancake, I took it back”, he said, voice a little hard to hear because of the mouth filled with pancakes, and soon swallowed down the entire thing, before moving on to the next pancake.  
Dave thought it was a better idea to just stick with the chicken sandwiches and not try to steal another pancake, for his own safety.  
And after about ten minutes, both the plates were completely empty, and Dave opened another Mountain Dew that he had stored under his bed.  
“Wanna share?”, he asked, opening the can, the sound of fizz slowly escaping hitting them.  
“Sure thanks”.  
“No prob Bob”.  
Dave took a deep sip of the drink before handing it to his boyfriend, who literally downed what was left in two seconds.  
“So what do you wanna do now? It’s a few hours until those activities”, he asked John.  
“Let's go and find the others and find something to do”.  
“Sounds neat, let's do that”, he says, gave John a small kiss before they both stood up, got ready to leave their cabin and look for their friends.

\---

“Hiking? A six hour long hiking? Why the fuck do my group get the worst things?”.  
“Well at least you’ll sleep good tonight”.  
“Well you’re stuck doing pottery, but six hours. Three hours one way then just go home. We live in fucking Texas, this forest shouldn't last more than like fifty minutes or maybe almost two hours of walking and I'm pretty sure we will walk through a suburban area and pass at least one taco bell if we go the same direction, so why the fuck three hours?”.  
“Well ask the camp leaders, I’ll make sure to get you some food for when your group comes back”.  
“Thanks John, that is really fucking appreciated, I’ll try not to die during the walk”.  
“Good luck out there”.  
“Thanks, that’ll be needed derp, have fun in pottery class, make me a shitty Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff themed thing okay”.

\---

“Okay the forest just ended, after a little more than two and just as I thought, there is a fucking Taco Bell in plain sight right over there”, Dave said as he pointed at the suburban area in front of the campers.  
“Well you sure walked faster than I thought, let's relax for an hour before we head back kids”, Ashton said as he sat down on the grass. “You can do what you want for a while”.  
What they wanted.  
Half of the children in his group literally ran into the Taco Bell, to get some sweet junk food now when they had the chance, because somehow they all thought it was a good idea to carry money.  
As Dave didn't have any money, he sat down on the grass, looking up at the sky, enjoying the peace and quiet, until, was that the sound of a motorcycle?  
Correctly, he saw a bearded man drive his motorcycle with one hand, and holding a huge plastic bag in the other, and as he passed a few bushes about maybe fifty feet in front of Dave, he threw the bag, and drove away.  
“What the fuck? Did you hear a sound?”. He asked Ashton and both immediately got up and quickly walked towards the bag. Yes there was a sound coming from the bag, and as Dave carefully opened it, he saw… a cat?  
Yes it was indeed a cat, with dirty fur which probably was white when washed, and lots of black and orange spots, and around the neck was a rope tied a little too tight, along with a sign attached to it, “free”.  
“What the actual fuck? HE DUMPED A FUCKING CAT!”, Dave screamed. “Like how the fuck could he do a thing like that? Fuck. What should we do?”.  
“Well I guess we’ll take it to camp with using, maybe a camper wanna adopt him, he’ll just end up a stray otherwise, could you hold him while I call my colleges to inform them of this?”.  
“Sure”.  
And so Dave Strider was holding a cat, a very dirty cat, but nonetheless a cat.  
He pet the cat so it purred, and heard him meow a little, and he smiled as he continued to scratch him behind his ear.  
This was a really cute cat okay, and he guess he felt sorry for him.  
Being thrown away like that, it brought back memories when he and Dirk had been thrown out of the house when Dave came out as trans.  
He felt sympathy for the cat.  
The cat was not going to experience more, he would make sure of it.  
As Ashton finished his phone call, Dave looked at him.  
“Can I keep him?”, he asked Ashton before continuing to pet the cat.


	44. Felix

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay I've finally learned how to write properly, so be prepared for having an easier time to read.

Chapter 44: Felix

Day 23 out of 28 of camp.

Dave was on his way back to camp with the other campers, the cat cradled in his arms, purring as he petted it.  
The cat sure was growing on him, in a good way.

“So, do you wanna keep him? If you change your mind or if your family says you can't, Jessie could keep him in her cabin”.

Fuck he haven't even talked to his bro about this.

“Okay I'm gonna make a call”.

Since he was holding the cat, he couldn't exactly use pesterchum, texting would be a living hell, so he did something he rarely did.  
He called his bro.  
Calling someone on a cell phone, so ancient.  
So old fashioned.  
He waited for him to pick up, which he did after four signals.

“Sup lil bro, why are you calling me? Is there a fire on camp that disturbs internet connection or something? Something so weird you have to actually call, like old people”.

“Well my hands are full, I’m holding a dirty cat, texting would be a hell”.

“Yeah that's right, but why are you holding a cat?”.

“We were on a hike and saw a dude on a motorcycle just throw him off, I couldn't just let him be, especially since it reminded me of… you know when we moved out together”, he said, being careful with the words he used since one of the counselors were in fact beside him, as he thought about how his parents had kicked them out of the house when he was only a small child.

“Well yeah I totally understand that, the person who threw him away must be a complete douchebag, in fact even worse. Like who the fuck does that to an animal?”.

“Yeah, that was not fucking okay. But I wondered if I could keep the cat”.

“Keep the cat?”.

“Yeah, that's what I said”.

“Isn't that a big responsibility?”.

“Says the one in Jersey doing questionable stuff and sending his little brother to summer camp”.

“Well sure you got me there, but sure thing, it's better than it ending up a stray, but I get to choose the name okay”.

“Well okay sure, just don't name him something weird okay, give him a name he won't be ashamed of, so no “Lil Cal Jr” or something that will scar the poor cat for life”.

“Well let's name him Felix”.

“You want to name the cat after Pewdiepie Seriously bro?”.

“Yup, it's a name with glory”.

“You watched one of his videos again didn't you? Please tell me you didn't”.

“Yeah they are really good puppet porn inspiration”.

“Okay I'll stop you right there, but sure we’ll name him that, if that makes me able to keep him”.

“Okay it's settled, I'll go and pick up cat things after today's movie shooting is over, I got quite a bonus from a few tourists who wanted to be seen in the background of a magnificent pile”.

“Okay I don't even wanna know more, but sure”.  
“Okay, I'll text you later, and make sure to send pictures of that cat”.

“Okay see you”.

The call ended and Dave put his phone into his pocket, before looking at Ashton.

“Yeah I’m keeping him, my bro said it was okay”.

“Okay, I'll text Jessie to make sure she drives into town and gets some cat food, he can eat from a soup bowl. And I'll give you the keys to the counselor bathroom, we have a bathtub there so you can clean him, that sure is a lot of dirt”.

“Yeah and thanks, I’ll do it”.

He carefully petted the cat, who continued to purr, seeming to enjoy Dave’s presence.  
But who would blame the cat?  
Who knows how long he had to be mistreated? Heck they didn't even know how old he was, he could be like twelve or something.  
But that didn't matter.  
Felix was gonna get a good life from now on (depending if living with Dave counted as good).  
The walk continued and once they reached camp, Dave followed Ashton to the counselor cabin and got access to the bath.  
He closed the door so that Felix wouldn't be able to run away, and put on the drain, the sound of water dripping becoming present in the room.  
Once there was enough, he carefully took Felix and tried to put him down in the water, which caused him to screech and claw.  
So a typical cat stereotype okay.  
He had to try many things until he got the cat in the water, and once he did, he looked at him with eyes full of hate.

“Well you really don't like water little buddy”, he said as he took a sponge and carefully tried to get rid of the dirt. “Don't worry, you’ll be out as soon as you’re clean, I promise the water is not gonna hurt you”.

Hiss..

“Don't you sass me Felix Strider, I just adopted you and I just want to keep you clean so that you can live inside”.

The following fifteen minutes were hell, Dave did everything to scrub the dirt of the dirt of the cat and rinse him with water, only to be created by countless of claw marks on his arms, tiny drops of blood falling down into the water.

“You’re damn lucky I like cats you little shit”.

Finally he was done with the torture of bathing and he got Felix up, before drying him with a towel.  
Now without the dirt, you could see the pure white fur on his belly and part of his snout, along with the red and black calico pattern.  
That sure was a cute cat.  
And hopefully he would be clean for a long period of time until Dave would have to bathe him again, because damn those scratches sure hurt.  
He took his phone up, took a few pictures and sent to Bro, and then he was ready.  
He took the cat and walked out of the counselor cabin, and to his own, where everyone was just chilling, including John.

“What the fuck is that?”, he heard Justin ask when he entered.

“It's a cat, isn't that fucking obvious? Do you need to check your eyes or something?”.

“Why the fuck do you have a cat?”.

“Why not? But he’ll be staying the rest of the camp, counselor’s orders, so you’ll just have to deal with it”, he said, putting Felix down on his bed.  
John who was on his bed, jumped down and sat beside Dave to greet the cat.

“So that's why Jessie came in with a soup bowl and just put it on the floor”.

“Yep, that's why”.

“So what did you name him? And how did you get him?”.

“Well some fucking deuce threw him away while driving a motorcycle and I'm not fucking heartless. Oh and my bro decided on the name Felix, that's why I got to keep him”.

“Cool”, John said.

“Not cool”, he heard Justin say as he laughed. “That's a name for pussies”.

“You know he IS a pussy right?”, Dave said, as Justin realized the flaw with his remark, ending with a quiet “fuck off you gay f*ggot, so fucking gay”.

“Well look isn't this little mister insecure, you’re probably hiding your own sexuality by trying to play cool on others, just admit that you like big dick up your ass”, he said. Justin may be a deuce, and this might have been too far, but he had been forced to listen to all his stupid shit all the summer, so time for some sweet revenge.  
He saw his face turn red before he started to violently curse.  
Jessie came into the cabin two seconds later.

“Justin what are you doing?!? That language is strictly forbidden on this camp, you’ve got warnings before. One more time and you’re out”  
.  
“But he start…”.

“No buts”, she said before turning to Dave.

“Here’s some cat food for this fellow”.

“Thanks”.

And so she left, and the usual teen bickering continued.

 

 


	45. An Asshole Cat and Some Friendship Talk

Chapter 45: An Asshole Cat and Some Friendship Talk

Day 24 out of 28 of camp.

  
Dave woke up to the sound of soft purring, and the motion of small paws crawling over his stomach, up to his face, before sitting on it, blocking the entrance for air.  
The lack of air and warm fur all over his face was making him aware of his surroundings, as he quickly shoved the cat away from his face, so that he would be able to breathe, before sitting up in bed.  
Oh sweet air, you never knew how good you are until you are lacking.  
After a few deep breaths and a yawn he looked down at his spotted cat who was purring at him for an unknown reason, as he tried to climb Dave, probably to sit on his head again.  
He sighed.  
Cats.

“Felix what’s to with you and trying to make me suffocate? Like seriously? What's so special about my head?”.

“Meow”.

He let out a sigh as he laid down in bed again, realizing everyone else were still fast asleep (it was probably around four AM or something, he was to lazy to check), and as soon as Dave put his head on the soft pillow, as he got ready to sleep, Felix began climbing him again, before sitting down on his head.  
And there again was the lack of air.

Once again he had to move the cat from him, and put him down beside him as he tried to go back to sleep to get some more dreams on before he would have to wake up for real.  
He patted his car slightly as his eyes grew heavier, sleep coming closer for every second, until the cat who had been so kind to stay on his place for a few minutes, once again sat on the top of Dave’s face, not realizing he was about to suffocate his owner, like a typical cat.

But Dave wondered why cats had too so this, he just wanted his sleep now, not having a possibility of being suffocated.  
Damn if cats weren't so cute he wouldn't put up with this bullshit.  
But as mentioned, Felix was too cute to blame, even if he was annoying.  
Okay take that back, blame the cat all you want, now he refused to be lift away from his owner’s pale face, burying his claws into Dave as he refused to be moved away.

“Fuck you Felix why can't you let me sleep? Do you want me to pass out?”.

Dave examined his hands and saw a few small scratches, joining the collection of wounds he had gotten when bathing the cat, small drops of blood from the wounds dripping down onto his clean, newly changed sheets.  
Ouch that hurt.  
How did his claws even get that sharp?

“Fuck you”, he said to his cat as he got a tissue from the floor, wiping away the blood.

“Meow”.

Felix now sat on Dave’s stomach, trying to get his attention, while doing weird motions, also putting his paws up in the air as he sat, trying to catch something he imagined, before taking a jump right onto Dave’s head yet again, but this time he made a second jump, down to the floor.  
He got one of the DIY cat toys Jessie had came with right before bedtime, after the campfire, grabbed it with his mouth and meowed at Dave, staring at him with his big eyes.

“No Felix everyone’s asleep, we can play later”.

“Meow”, the cat said as he jumped back into the bed, you in mouth, as he sat down on Dave’s chest, just staring at him.

“Felix we will play later but they are sleeping right now”, he said, taking the toy from him and putting it down in the ground.  
It was up on the bed again five seconds later.

Dave let out a deep sigh as he admitted defeat, went and got dressed, before he began playing with his cat outside of the cabin.

~ About 20 minutes later ~

The sun was about to set, already making the Texan air pretty hot for the time, the sound of crickets in the distance, and here Dave was outside in the early morning, playing with his cat.  
Like what even was the odds for that?  
Well Felix wouldn't shut up so what was the odds.  
Well back in Austin Felix would have to learn to deal with Dave sleeping in, but here at camp he didn't wanna make the others wake up because of his cat, because who knew what would happen.  
Because well animals shouldn't be at camp in the first place and he didn't want anyone to think of Felix as a problem.

As he sat down on the ground to pet his cat, he heard footsteps coming closer. As he turned around, he saw Jade, out in her pajamas but anime dog ears still on like always.

“Hey Dave. Why are you up at 5 am playing with a cat?”, he heard her ask as she approached him.

“Well he was acting like a little shit and almost suffocated me multiple times and it was like he threatened to wake everybody up if I didn’t play with him, like this fucker thinks he’s the boss of me… wait a second, why are YOU even outside at 5 am?”.

“Oh me? I'm just out on a walk because I was bored and couldn't sleep, and because I'm quite used to it. When I was really small I always followed Bec out on his morning walk and I still do, and walking early reminds me of him, it's pretty nice”.

“Well that's nice… I guess”.

“Yeah it is, it’ll be nice seeing him again after all this time, I've missed him so much, I’m gonna buy some luxury dog food and a whole mountain of new squeaky toys before I go home just to treat him”.

Fuck that thing.  
Camp was actually almost over.  
He has forgotten again.  
How could he forget it so often?  
Like how?

“Fuck I forgot, camp’s almost over. I went through this yesterday with myself but I keep fucking forgetting, like when I finally get used to this place I'll soon leave, it’s nature laughing in my face or so stupid shit like that”.

“Yeah I know what you mean, and it must be hard with going home now with John and all, you living so far away and all, when you just got together and all that”.

Fuck he hadn't even thought about that for a while.  
And sidenote, Jade used the phrase “and all” a lot, and totally not because the writer wrote this when he was really tired. (You don't pass up an inspiration boost kids).

“Yeah, but we have already talked about visiting on vacations, and things like Skype does exists, it's not the dark ages or anything, and I'm pretty sure everyone here has wifi at home”.

“Yeah, and you’re right. That's way more like being close then just typing on a chat client. I think I'm gonna get a Skype too, it’ll probably be the same username as on my pesterchum”.

“Nice, I’ll add you and then we can all have huge weird as fuck midnight Skype parties, you, me, John, Rose, Kanaya and even lil ginger Shoutykat, if he doesn't make us dead before camp ends per say”, he said, and then remembered something. “While talking but Karkat, did you ask him out?”, he asked, remembering what Jade had said before.  
She just nodded and smiled, her face turning to the shade of a very deep red, reminding Dave of a ripe tomato.

“He said yes”.

“Well congratulations, even though I don't understand the appeal of mr McShouty I'm pretty sure you’ll have a great time together”.

“Thanks”.

“Wow you’re so hetero, like the only heteros in our friend group”.

“Nah I’m biromantic and demisexual, not hetero, and I'm pretty sure Karkat is pan, he told me once”.

“Well nice, then we literally are the gay squad ™. And forgive me for all this weird rambling I'm so tired and it's five am and my cat wants me to suffer”.

Jade sat reached out to pet Felix, who immediately started to purr at her gentle touch.

“So lil Felix, be nice to Dave okay, he’s a really great guy who needs his sleep”.

“I don't think that's gonna work, he’s just sassing me anyway”.

“Well it's always worth a try, and man he sure is nice to cuddle, that fur is so soft”.

“I know right, it's so nice to cuddle unless you’re being suffocated by it”.

Both let out a small laugh as Felix continued to purr at Jade’s touch, as he stroke his side onto her leg a little, before just laying down in the slightly wet grass.

“Naw he’s so cute”.

“Yeah hopefully he will calm down so I can actually get some sleep. Right Felix? Will you listen to me?”.

“Meow”, the cat answered as he purred.

“I think that was a yes”, Jade said as she let out a yawn.

“I certainly hope so, because your yawn made me realize exactly how fucking tired I am”.

“Well I'm also pretty tired, a little more sleep before breakfast would be nice, so I think I'm gonna head back to my cabin now”.

“Sure, see you later”, Dave answered as Jade stood up and walked away.

Now he was alone with Felix again, the small purring cat just relaxing in his lap.  
He took him up and began walking towards his cabin again, put the cat down on the ground before changing back into his pajamas before jumping into his warm cozy bed, cat beside him.

“Now you won't destroy my sleep, won't you?”, he asked before slowly closing his eyes, drifting away to sleep.

Felix did jump onto his face again, but thankfully that was after an hour's more sleep, and after that he had woken up John so he could take over the cat suffocation torture for a little while, so Dave couldn't complain that much.  
The cat was way too cute for that.  
Especially when it laid close beside his own sleepy bucktoothed boyfriend.


	46. The Gang at the Dining Hall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having a huge writer's block when it comes to this story but I'm thriving in my others, so next chapter might not be ready until next Saturday, but I won't give up on the story and I'll do everything I can for it.

Chapter 46: The Gang at the Dining Hall.

Day 24 out of 28 of camp.

  
Dave was currently in the bathroom, changing out of his comfy pajamas, because all the other boys in the cabin were still there, also changing.

And as Dave changed, John was looking after his cat, which he should since Felix had been literally torturing him the entire night, so now it was John’s turn to experience the cat torture.

Once the binder was on, he put on his red hoodie over it, because his camp tshirt was in the laundry (fuck he was gonna sweat like a beast but he couldn't do anything about the laundry thing so he had to manage), and then went back outside, seeing John laying on the floor with the cat over him, cuddling with him.

“So John I'm back, give me Felix and you can change”, he said as he sat down on his bed.

“Okay sure, here he is”, John said, as Dave took his cat from John’s arms. As John was free from the cat, he also began to change, and soon he was standing there in a pair of shorts and a white tshirt.

Man he was hot. He sure had scored high in the boyfriend apartment.

“So let's go eat breakfast”, he said and Dave nodded.  
This would actually be the first time he ate in the dining halls in days, John was always bringing him food.

He lifted Felix up along with his food bowl and left the cabin with John, and as they walked outside, Felix was purring the entire time.   
Man such a cute cat.

As they walked, their gang grew, Rose and Kanaya joining, before they were joined by Jade and Karkat, and soon everyone was there.

“Dave can I hold Felix for a bit?”, Jade asked and Dave nodded, handing over his cat.

“Naw he’s so cute”.

“I know right, he’s the best even though he’s a fucking sassmaster”.

“He reminds me a bit of my old cat Jaspers, he sadly passed away a few years ago”, he heard Rose say, as she walked beside Jade, also gently patting the cat.

“I'm sorry to hear that”.

“Meh it's okay, mom stuffed his corpse and put him in a suit in a mausoleum, so he’ll never rot, I go and look at him sometimes”.

“O-kay?”.

“Yeah I know my mom is so fucking weird sometimes, and I haven't even talked about her ridiculous shitty wizard addiction yet, like I'm pretty sure her computer got a virus when she downloaded those shitty wizard pics before taking them to a photo studio”.

“The fuck? How big was the photos?”, Karkat asked.

“Oh trust me they’re big, some of them take up entire walls, I saw it when I visited her. That wallpaper really is shitty ”, Kanaya said, looking into the distance, like she was remembering the moments of terrifying wizard decor.

“Okay, how come everyone here has weird families?”, John asked.

“Well I guess it's fate, because like I thought I'd never find anyone with a family as weird as mine”, Jade said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

All of them had super weird guardians, that's for sure.

Soon they arrived at the dining hall, which was exploding with the flavors of different foods in the air, making Dave’s mouth water a bit. So they got their food (guess what John chose? You get only one guess since it should be pretty obvious by now) and sat down at an empty yet clean table, while Dave put the food bowl down on the floor, before giving his cat food to the brink, and once he had given him food, he could focus on his own, a few delicious sandwiches and some scrambled eggs and one pancake with lots of syrup (which John wanted to steal). All with a glass of water and an apple on the side.  
Okay he had to try to play healthy for atleast a day, then people could believe he was healthy.  
But now when thinking about it, how was pancakes with syrup healthy?  
Meh never mind, that's a problem for another day.

“Fuck you, that's my pancake, your plate is full with thousands of them anyway”, he said, shielding the pancake from John’s fork.

“It's more like eleven, but Dave please, I love pancakes”.

“You know that if you’re still hungry after that monstrosity of a pancake tower then there’s always more pancakes over there, so don't you dare put a finger on mine”, he said before cutting loose a piece of the pancake and ate it, he never knew if John would steal it anyway, so better eat fast.

“But please”.

“If you keep whining about this particular pancake I won't kiss you at all today”.

“Okay I'll stick to my pancakes”.

“That's it Egderp”, Dave said before taking another piece of the pancake, before taking a zip of water, as the group became silent for a while, focusing on what they were there for in the first place, the breakfast.

“So what do you all wanna do today?”, Kanaya then asked, and before Dave had time to think, Jade was already proposing a suggestion.

“Let's draw!”, she said, and Dave swore he saw the dog ears on her headband wiggle, fuck he must be hallucinating.   
For safety reasons, he stole John’s glass of water and downed it, in case he was about to get a heatstroke or something.

“Well why not? It's too hot to do anything anyway, thanks Dave”, Karkat said.

“Fuck you, I may be a Texan citizen but I don't control the heat, trust me, if I did you’d be freezing right now, especially with that attitude”.

“Fuck off”.

“Well you started it mr McShouty”.

“Boys calm down, there’s enough promarkers for all of you”, Jade said, trying to calm them down. At that moment, the cat had finished his food and jumped up into the table, starting to purr as he stroke himself against Dave. “Even for Felix, he can get a promarker too, walking around trying to paint. That would be so cute to see”.

“We’ll I'm sure he would love it, but I'm not sure he’s the artistic type of cat, no shame in trying though, who knows, maybe I've got the next Picasso here. And using your markers that other time ago was actually pretty neat, that drawing hanging on my wall is find by Jade”, he said, as he scratched Felix behind the ear, making him purr even more.

Man what a cute cat.

“Wow, I didn't know you could draw Jade”, Kanaya said before taking a bite of her apple. “I always wondered who made those drawings but I never thought it was you, you’re amazing. Would you mind being my pattern designer for my fashion stuff? It would be nice with a partner”, Kanaya asked, getting more excited for each second.

Yeah Dave knew that if Kanaya mentioned fashion and partner in the same sentence, then the person was really talented in Kanaya standard, aka legit.

“Nice, sounds fun”.

“Yeah, then we can discuss that later once the others are occupied, I don't think they’d make it through long conversations about design and fashion”.

“Yeah Jade listen to Kanaya”, Dave said. “I don't wanna die a slow and painful death by confusion by fashion and drawing terms and hour long lectures, please help your friends out here”.

The entirety of the friend group started to laugh, some slightly, and some (John) so historically so it looked like he was about to pass out by lack of air because everything went to the laughing.

Dave didn't complain though, John’s laugh was so pretty.

But sadly Felix looked like he wanted to complain.

Because two seconds later he was on John’s face, scratching him as he hissed at the black haired boy, claws deep into his skin as he tried to fight (but fighting what? John’s voice? He wasn't THAT bad when it came to the voice department, Dave was way worse).

“Man I guess my cat don't like your laugh”, Dave said as he saw the red wounds on John’s cheek as he held his cat in his arms, trying to calm the  
beast, himself getting a few scratches on the process (asshole cat). “But don't worry, at least I do. Felix must be fucking tone deaf or something, because he seems to have some issues”.

“Okay let’s get to buisness and painting before Dave’s cat decides to murder any of us”, Karkat said, which everyone nodding as a response.

“Agreed”.


	47. Boredom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a week late but here you go.

Chapter 47: Boredom

Day 24 out of 28 of camp.

  
After a few hours of drawing (more like abusing Jade’s promarkers along with Felix who decided to chew on a meadow green one until it broke), trading drawings and looking at Jade’s drawings and admiring her talent and anime style to her characters, the gang parted to go to their respective cabins, and Dave put up the new drawings on his wall even though he would be going home in just a few days, because why not?   
They were decorative after all.  
John also did the same thing so he wasn't the only one being strange at the moment, which he appreciated, and it made him feel more sane, because sure putting up more things days before going home is just so normal.

And once that was done, the friend group met up at the Dining Hall for lunch, and ate as fast as they could so they could get back to their shenanigans, they had no idea what they would do, but better make the last of the time right.

As they once again was outdoors, they brainstormed what to do while Dave was petting his cat, who was currently not acting like an asshole for a change. And as the group all stood there, Jade got their attention.

“So, what should we do now?”.

“Let's go bath”, came a suggestion.

“No we do that almost every day, let's do something else”.

“What about canoeing?”.

“Do you wanna murder our fucking arms? Canoeing is the worst and I do not want cramps again”.

“Play volleyball?”.

“This camp doesn't have a volleyball net John”.

“Join a sport activity?”.

“No thanks, I’m not good at running”.

“Yeah I'm with Dave, I’m not up for that today, too lazy”.

“What about doing some old fashioned knot lessons?”.

“Nope, and don't even try to make it sound fun by a Camp Camp styled song about this place being tucked away where we can stay and being a place for me and you. Doing knots is not my thing okay”.

“Drawing?”.

“We just did that, for hours, and I don't think Jade’s markers wants us to ever touch them again”.

“Fuck you’re right… and damn I'm out of ideas now”.

“So am I”.

“Me three”.

“This is fucking bullshit there gotta be something we can do at this god forsaken hellhole except being a mosquito dinner bufé, since it has somehow kept us occupied for three weeks already. Why are we getting idea blocks now out of all the times?”,

The whole gang shrugged before Dave spoke up.

“I guess this is nature’’s way to laugh at us while giving us the old fashioned middle finger or something”.

“Well Mother Nature better not fuck with the air traffic because dad is flying through the country to get me”, was John’s answer.

The more Dave thought about it, what the heck did a New York citizen do in Texas for a camp? Was his dad crazy or something? Yeah that totally had to be it and not plot relevance or anything. And there’s totally no fourth wall break at all from the author right now. Well no matter what it seemed John’s dad would fly down to get his son, before flying back to their home. That sounded way more exciting than Bro getting him with the car, but soon he would be back home with air conditioner and unlimited video game time along with late night game sessions filled with tons of red bulls and rap music..

Yeah that’d be nice.

He could spent the rest off his summer like a normal teenage boy and do absolutely nothing instead of rotting in the wilderness.

But to be fair, the camp had made him get a few good friends and also a boyfriend so he guessed it wasn't completely useless.

“Well it's a bigger chance to be hit by lightning so I think your dad will be fine”, Rose answered John and he nodded.

“Yeah but with my bad luck, I always have bad luck. It's the, buy 99 out of 100 numbers on a lottery and still lose kind of luck. Like it's a wonder Dave didn't throw me out of a cliff when I confessed to him, he was way out of my league”, John said, which made Dave giggle a bit.

“Me out of your league? Are you fucking serious? Bitch it was you who were out of my league”, was his answer, and it was true. Both boys had been nervous in vain because both clearly loved each other, they were boyfriends after all.

“I ship it”, Jade said as John took Dave’s hand in his as they both blushed, Dave looking at John's bucktoothed grin and felt calm.

Why was he so fucking cute?

The kids talked for a few more minutes, still trying to figure out what to do, and over and over Jade brought up the idea of going to the lake. Which most people agreed too.

“Fucking fine, but what shall I do with Felix? I can't take him to the lake”, Dave said, thinking at how much that cat despised water. No H2O for that cat, and the author asks for forgiveness for that bad science rhyme.

“I can watch the lil shit”, Karkat said. “I'm not in the mood for bathing so why not?”, he said, while shrugging a bit.

“Nice cool, but would you really do that for me?”, Dave asked, as he scratched Felix behind the ear.

“Yeah why not, I’m pretty sure I can take care of that cat”, he said, and Dave nodded.

“Fine, but if I see a single scratch on my cat when I’m back then you’re doomed”.

“A scratch on the cat? It's rather the cat that will murder my arms, but sure, be an overprotective father to an animal”.

The gang parted, Karkat taking Felix with him to his cabin, while the girls went to theirs to get the swim clothes, making John and Dave alone on the way back to their cabin.

“So are you gonna bathe today?”, John asked, and Dave shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess, everyone already knows I'm trans except Jade, barring Karkat that's not coming, so why the fuck not”, he said, getting the red swim trunks from under his bed, and questioned if he should bring a loose tshirt too.

Meh, he was going topless, because why the fuck not? Nothing really scared him at the moment.

“Wait Rose and Kanaya knows?”.

“Yeah… they found out when I was in despair mood during my shark week, crying in my own blood and all”,

“Oh… I hope you’ll be able to get rid of the blood soon if it bothers you, because man I have no idea how it must feel to be in your situation, I just hope I can be to some help”.

“Man you’re the first fucking person that says that instead of “I understand how you feel” when they clearly aren't trans. But thanks, that means a lot dude”, he said, giving John a peck on the cheek.

They left the cabin and joined the girls and as they got a bit into the forest, Dave took a huge breath.

“Okay everyone already knows this except Jade, so since I'm planning to swim today I’m telling ypu that I’m trans”, he said, getting nods from everyone.

“You’re trans?”, Jade asked. “Ftm, mtf or nonbinary?”.

“I'm ftm”, Dave said, hoping to get a good reaction and not some weird reaction. But thankfully, he got a good one.

“Cool, it's nice not being alone”, she said.

“Wait what?”.

“Yeah, I’m mtf but I had the luxury to get on puberty blockers thanks to the huge sum of money my grandpa gave me when he passss a way, so the wrong puberty never started so I pass pretty well, I think atleast. Still waiting for estrogen though”.

Jade got reactions from everyone.

“Wait you are?”.

“Yeah, I just never saw it as a big deal to tell everyone about it, since well I'm Jade, just an ordinary girl, and I didn't want people to just think of me as trans as the first thing that came to their mind when hearing my name, I wanted to be known as a drawer and anime nerd instead, but now that Dave shared this I wanted to share it too”.

And so, Dave found out that one of his close friends also were trans, and they ended up spending a few hours in the lake.


	48. FaceTime with Bro

Chapter 48: FaceTime with Bro

Day 25 out of 28 of camp.

  
The sun was setting for the day, the campers of Camp Haven doing what they usually did these hours, went to the bonfire. Well usually. Dave on the other hand, who almost never went to the bonfire, was currently on the way back from the swimming lake, helping John carrying the hammock.

They had spent most of the day at the lake since it was even hotter than usual, but that had been their last swim. The last days would include only camp activities and packing, because the Camp was almost over. So there would be no more time to go back to the lake, and since well John didn't wanna accidentally leave his hammock at camp, Dave was helping him carry it back.

It felt strange, the place they had spent so many days at, the place that had meant so much to him, and lots of things that wasn't swimming had happened there too, like him and John kissing did the first time. It was hard to believs that it was the last time they would visit the lake. He couldn't really name the emotion he felt, but it felt a bit weird. Don't tell anyone, but Dave had really gotten attached to the camp that he once just wanted to get away from. He would actually miss it, the camp activities, the lake, his friends, and those s’mores for the nights he actually went to the bonfire, but don't tell Bro that. But a thing he would not miss was Justin, it would be amazing to get rid of him, so amazing so there wasn't even a world for it yet.

As the two boys approached their cabin, Dave said that he would open the door, so he did, letting John carry the hammock inside, and once the entirety of it was in, he helped John carry it to their part of the cabin, putting it at the bottom of one of John’s suitcases.

Once they were finished, both took deep breaths and just sat down on Dave’s bed, a little bit exhausted, (and no, not only from carrying the hammock. They had been swimming the entire day so their muscles were sore).

“So, wanna go to the bonfire?”, John asked after about a minute of silence, and Dave shook his head as an answer.

“Nah, I’m fine here, just wanna relax and all after swimming all day. You can go though, I will probably just text my bro anyway”.

“No, I’m staying here too, after all we’re alone so we have time to cuddle”, John said, and Dave smiled, before he laid down on his bed, making room for John, as they held hands.

“It's almost over”, John said.

“Yeah… can't believe it. I thought these weeks would never end, but now that they do, I don't want them to end”, was his answer.

“I know what you mean, but we can make it through long distance and all, we’ll visit each other on all breaks”.

“Yeah, and there’s Skype and texting and pesterchum, even though texting and oesterchum are basically the same thing. And don't forget discord, the Skype 2.0, but with gaming”.

“Yeah there’s a lot of ways to keep in touch, so atleast there’s that. Thankfully we’re not born in the age of letters. Can you imagine how that would be?”.

Dave thought about how it would have been if they were in the letter age, it would have been so different and weird, and no instant answer. And writing formal long messages about all you have done and then just ask how the other person had it instead of casual conversations. Man it would've taken all the fun out from having conversations with John, there would be no good comebacks and one liners from neither of them. And no pictures sent to each other, unless you got actual photographies and sent them in a letter too.

Thank you internet for being there to help. It was way easier, and better.

“Don't even joke about writing letters. The conversations would just be weird… not like a casual one”.

“Yeah, you’re right there. And there wasn't FaceTime back then. I want to see you and hear your voice, it's cute”.

Okay Dave was hardcore blushing.

“Naw Egderp, you’re the cute one”, he said, before planting a kiss on John’s forehead.

That led John to kiss Dave’s lips, and soon they were making out, enjoying each second of the kisses they gave each other, as Dave felt warm and happy. He was close to John.

It didn't go further than making out, because well they were kids and hadn't been together that long, and they were in a cabin were four other boys lived. But the kissing way enough for both of them, as they just held hands and blushed, before John put his head on Dave’s chest, listening to his slow heartbeat.

“I love you”, John said and Dave smiled, but before he had the chance to reply with “I love you too you Egdork”, there was a high pitched sound coming from Dave’s phone. A message from hi bro that said “Call me on FaceTime”.

So Dave did.

His bro answered after three signals.

“Sup lil bro, how's it going?”.

“It's going good. You?”.

“Pretty neat, the last film is finished tomorrow. And I’m back in Texas the day before you come home, oh and do I spy a boy beside you there?”.

“Yeah”, Dave said, blushing as he turned the camera to John, who waved slightly.

“You must be Dave’s boyfriend, John was it?. I’m Dirk, Dave’s big brother”.

“Yeah it's John. Nice to meet you, Dave told me a lot about you, you sound like the coolest big brother ever”.

“Well thanks, that sure is a title I'm honored if I had”.

“So, Dave told me you work with puppet porn, am I right?”.

“Sure are, but it's not just porn. It's true art in its purest form, it makes loads of cash”, Dirk said, and Dave saw how he smiled through the camera.

“Nice”, John said, and then Dave spoke.

“So bro, what was it that you needed money for so much that you went to Jersey and sent me to camp?”, he asked, wanting to get an answer now that he actually saw him, even though it was through his screen.

“Well I would gladly explain, but some of them have to do with your… medical condition, so we can take it later if you wanna”.

“No, John knows I'm trans, you can take it now. And you better take it now since I'm curious now, you don't just mention money and my transition in one sentence without giving an answer”.

“Oh okay. So you do know?”, Dirk asked and John nodded.

“Okay, one thing, if you ever do something that makes my brother feel uncomfortable with him being trans, then you’re not safe”.

Okay John looked scared.

“Take it easy bro, he’s not that evil kinda guy, trust me, he would never hurt me on purpose, he’s the best”.

“Well okay. So did you wanna hear what will be of the puppet porn money?”.

“Yeah”.

“Well I've ordered a new binder for you since the one you have now is becoming a bit old, and I've ordered you a stand to pee packer, the fancy kind. Then I put away some money for your college funds. But the rest of that money goes straight into your transition fund, so that you can start T and get surgery as fast as you get a permission from the doctors”.

Oh my fucking god.

“Are you serious?”, Dave asked, and Dirk nodded.

“Sure am little bro… are you crying?”.

“Of course I am you dipshit, you would to if you got told the best news in your entire life”, Dave said as the tears rolled down his cheeks, and he felt John hug him.

“You’re the best brother in the entire world”, Dave says, still not believing it. Dirk thanked, and then just cut off the call, saying what he wanted to say.

The very reason Dirk had taken that Jersey trip, was to get Dave transition money.

The rest of the evening was John hugging Dave as he cried tears of pure happiness,

“I'm so happy for you Dave”, his boyfriend said, before Dave pulled John into a hug.

Yes this was definitely a good day.


	49. Canoeing Gone Wrong

Chapter 49: Canoeing Gone Wrong

Day 26 out of 28 of camp.

  
“Okay campers”, Ashton said to get everyone’s attention. “Today will be a day filled to the brink with many fun activities since today is the last day with them and tomorrow is mainly for packing, I know you’re gonna enjoy them”.

Ugh.

Sure. Of course camp leaders always thought the campers adored every single activity that was mentioned.

He was way more excited for tomorrow when he could pack his shit and finally get out of this dumpster.

Dave liked the days without activities way better, then he could atleast do what he wanted instead of being forced to do something he hated along with people he barely knew.

“First off we’re gonna have a canoe race two and two, across the lake and back. Then we’ll do pottery until it's time for lunch. After that we’ll play capture the flag, then do some swimming in the lake, and as the last thing, we’ll do the usual bonfire but with extra s’mores. That sure sounds nice, right campers?”.

“Yeah…”, came the rather unexcited answer from most campers. So much to do. Dave would rather have more free time, he’s pretty sure everyone here would want more free time. Also who would take care of Felix if he’s gone all day? A few hours is okay, but all day?

Well one of the counselors better take care of him or else they were gonna be in deep trouble. If anything happened to his arrogant cat then he would be a living nightmare to the one that caused it.

The counselors stopped talking, and made all the students walk towards the lake, canoes already on the wet shore, how had he not seen them?

They got told to into groups of two, and Dave chose John because he was nearby, and well, the canoeing would suck a little less now that he knew he would work together with John during this activity atleast.

They got told the rules, two teams would race against each other, and the winner would be qualified to the next round, and so on until there was only two teams left, which would make this activity take up a long time of the day, but well, atleast that meant a little less canoeing for Dave, he thought it would be a constant race for hours or something.

The race began, with two teams of people Dave didn't know, and then there was Jade and Karkat against two boys, his friend's won, man, Jade sure was good at paddling canoes.

Third round was Dave and John, against Al Megido and his cousin Aradia, if he remembered their names correctly. That blue hair from the boy was a thing he remembered atleast.

They sat down in their canoes, Dave in the front, both waiting for a whistle and the race to start.

And it did.

Both quickly began paddling like their lives depended on it, the fastest paddling they had ever done, and as Dave felt the sweat run down his face as they were halfway across the lake, a bit into the lead, an adrenaline rush kicked in and the only thing he remembered was constantly screaming “NOW” in unison with his boyfriend as they tried to move forward. The rowing actually went kind of well, and as they almost reached the shore on the other side, they turned the canoe around, still rowing in the same fast pace, screaming and just focusing on winning, and moving forward.

Everything seemed to go perfectly, but at the end of the race the fatigue from the fast rowing was making Dave’s arm hurt a lot, which slowed them down, and as he looked back, he saw that the Megidos were closing in, so he bit his lip and shouted that they needed to go faster, and really tried to row even when his arm were burning and felt like they would fall off any second.

They were gonna win this.

But yet, the Megidos came in closer, so as Dave took deep breaths and row, he did it with too much force, and next second he found himself under the canoe, floating in the cold blue water, swimming his way up to the surface.

As he was breathing in the summer air he adjusted to the scenery, the Megidos were now in goal, and he heard the counselor shout, asking if they were okay.

Yeah they were.

Wait fuck where was John.

Just as he was beginning to think of the worst and swim around to look for him, John emerged from the water, holding his glasses in one hand.

“They fucking fell off so I had to dive down for them while not seeing”, he said before he coughed up some water.

Dave let him lean on his back as the float around, and he swam them closer to the canoe so John could get a grip of it, before both of them began swimming towards the shore with the canoe.

“Hey f*ggots, can't even row right?”, he heard Justin ask as they got up on the shore, their clothes dripping wet.

Fuck, this meant his binder was wet and he needed to get out of it asap.

“Well we lost on purpose so we won't have to do more of these god damn races, and now we’re gonna go to the cabin and fuck in your bed before changing while we’re at it”, Dave said, just to make Justin uncomfortable.

Of course they wouldn't have sex in his bed, like ew, who knows what parasites that bully carried that could be on that bed.

Oh and they were fifteen, and just got into a relationship so kissing was enough. But well, Justin didn't know that they actually were together, it was just an harassment that turned again the harasses.

They walked up to the counselors, Ashton talking to them.

“Well that was a drill boy, you can go change clothes and then you can come back”.

Fuck no.

He looked over at Miranda, the counselor that knew his secret, and waved her over, whispering to her.

“My binder is soaking wet and it's dangerous to be in a wet binder, but I only have one, so I can't come back after changing”.

He felt his cheeks redden as he talked about his chest problems to someone that wasn't his Bro or John, but Miranda gave him an understanding look and nodded.

“I'll come up with an excuse to the other counselors so that you can skip the rest of the day, and one for your friend there too so you won't be that alone if you wanna. Does he know?”.

“Yes, he knows about it”.

“Well okay boys, just go to your cabins and stay, I’ll take care of the rest. As you said, it's not safe to walk around in a wet binder”.

He nodded and walked back to John, before they both walked away from the lake.

As soon as they got into the cabin, Dave practically ripped of his shirt before removing his binder (which was extremely hard now that the wet fabric was practically sewn onto his skin), and made a victory sound as it came off, before he laid down on the floor, topless, just enjoying the fact that he now could breath normally, and Felix who had been hiding under the bed got out, and of course sat down on Dave’s chest.

John was also changing, he had gotten out of his wet clothing and gotten into his night clothes, since they now had the privilege to skip more activities.

John took Dave night clothes and threw them beside Dave, before asking him a thing.

“Want me to take your binder and hang it up in the bathroom? It's quite warm there so it might dry a bit faster, and it'll be easy to hide if the others come”.

Dave nodded.

“Yeah, thanks dude”, he said, and as John disappeared, Dave stood up, carefully removing Felix before he took off his shorts and boxers before getting into new boxers and then his night clothes that John had thrown at him, just in time as John now got out of the bathroom.

They both jumped into Dave’s bed, yawning as they enjoyed the warmth of the bed and their dry clothes. And of course Felix who now jumped up and sat on John’s head.

“So, wanna watch some Netflix?”, Dave asked and John nodded in excitement as Dave opened up the app on his phone, thinking about what to pick

“Let's watch Voltron! The original, you gotta watch it! Defender of the Universe will always be my favorite because nostalgia but Legendary Defender is amazing too”.

“Dude we’re fifteen, isn't the original from the eighties? How can you be nostalgic about that?”.

“You gotta see my dad’s retro Voltron collection okay, it has it’s own room in our house”.

“Okay, baking AND nerd?”.

“Yeah. So, can we watch it?”.

Dave nodded before giving his before a kiss.

“Sure, but only if we watch a horror movie of my choice after ten episodes of that show of yours”.

“Deal”.


	50. Packing and Ghost Stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! Writer's block and school has been tiring, but here it is. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Chapter 50: Packing and Ghost Stories

Day 27 out of 28 of camp.

  
Dave put down the last of his shirts, leaving only one out, he would use it tomorrow. He was currently in the middle of rearranging his bag, packing all his stuff so that he wouldn't forget something the following day when he would leave the camp. Because he would not be happy if he was in the car home realizing he had forgotten something very important, that would literally suck.

Felix was laying on his messy bed rolled into a ball, just sleeping as his owner did all the cleaning, but thankfully he wasn't in the way, so Dave wasn't complaining.

He took up a pair of boxers that had been lying in the floor, and threw them into the bag, before he took up a dirty tshirt. His part of the cabin still looked like shit, but atleast now there was no clothes between all the chips, cheeto dust and empty Monster and Redbull bottles. Oh and all the fucking cat hair. How much did Felix even shed? It was inhumane how much hair he had shed in such little time.

So it definitely was an improvement. It was not like the other guys had it much cleaner anyway, actually the opposite. Dave’s part actually looked kinda clean when you looked at the whole cabin, and that said a lot about the teen boys that had been living there for a month. Poor camp counselors that would have to clean when they left.

He threw the bag into a corner, and then sat down on his bed, carefully so he wouldn't disturb the cat (he was a cranky bitch whenever someone woke him up, all claw marks on Dave’s arms was solid proof). He let out a yawn before he looked at the wall filled with pictures and drawings from over the camp months, and he felt a smile slowly grow on his lips as he thought back on all the memories with John, Jade, Rose, Kanaya and Karkat. It had been amazing, and pretty funny too. He knew he would miss them, who wouldn't when you had finally gotten friends like this? You were sick of you wouldn't miss such amazing friends like this.

So he slowly took the pictures and drawings down, one after one. So carefully so that they wouldn't tear, he would hang these up over his bed back in his and Bro’s apartment, so they couldn't look torn.

He got a small pile of the drawings and pictures, and jumped of the bed and got the bag he had just put away (smart move there Dave, extremely smart. Now let the author mock you now that he finally his writing inspiration while being stressed by college), and opened one of the smaller pockets, putting everything in there, before closing it again and once again putting it away, the bag making quite a loud sound.

But thankfully Felix didn't wake up. Thank the gods indeed.

Since he was tired and his pillow was stolen by his cat, he climbed up to the top bunk and stole John’s bed.

Well he wasn't there so he wouldn't mind. No one was exactly using that spot to relax in right now, unless Dave was laying down beside a transparent ghost or something, which he probably didn't do.

Some time passed, and Dave enjoyed being alone. He checked his social media and then got his headphones and started to listen to some music, TOP of course, it had been a few days since he had listened to them so now it was time. No one was around to find out about his TOP loving secret anyway, and it was not like you heard what he was listening too anyway.

He never realized how much time had passed, but a few songs in he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He sat up and looked down, seeing John smiling as he stood on the ground, so Dave took out his headphones to hear what John wanted to say.

“You’ve packed everything?”.

Dave nodded.

“Yeah. And Felix stole my bed so I took yours, hope it didn't matter”.

“Meh, it's fine. I'm in your bed all the time anyway”.

As his buck toothed boyfriend talked, Dave got down from the top bunk, and sat down on his own bed, Felix was still sleeping on the pillow, and he didn't wanna disturb the cat.

“Well, good to know”.

A nod from John.

“Yeah. But I wonder, do you wanna go to the bonfire later tonight? It's the last night before going home after all”, came the question, and after a few seconds of thinking, he nodded.

“Sure. Why not?”.

A smile lit up John’s face which made Dave blush in a deep red.

“Neat! I can't wait for the s'mores”.

“Pft. Are you as addicted to s’mores as pancakes?”.

Awkward silence.

“Maybe…”.

“Oh my fucking God John. Have you considered seeing a dentist for your sweet problems?”.

“My dad’s a dentist, part dentist”.

“Wait what? Wasn't he a baker?”.

“He’s both actually. Or well he studied two weeks in college before dropping out to become a baker, but that's apparently enough to get to take state gear home and fix my teeth all by himself”.

“I swear it feels like this universe is just wanting to fuck with us”.

  
~

  
The sun was setting for the day, leaving the sky in an orange color with hints of pink that slowly became darker and darker shades every minute, as the warm sun disappeared, the sky being replaced with the black void filled with twinkling stars in the distance.

No city lights or any other lamps made it much easier to see the stars and actually a few constellations, and Dave had to admit that it was nice.

He and John walked towards the campfire, as it burned a fierce orange color from the distance, among with the smell of smoke and the shattering of teens sitting down and talking while eating marshmallows and s’mores.

As they arrived, the two boys sat down on an almost empty log, and someone handed them old fashioned sticks, and one of the many marshmallow bags.

They were in the middle of telling ghost stories, which made Dave yawn since they were so lame. He saw that his various friends also thought so, well except John who was shaking.

But seriously, one of the campers was telling the tale Dave had told weeks prior, trying to get all the praise as if it was his own.

And so many people looked scared.

Damn that's not scary at all.

He smiled.

This was the last night, so he would do his best.

Once the next ghost story ended (which was a badly made horror story about some old dog), Dave got the world.

“The boy shaked as his heart was beating faster than anything he had ever experienced before in his whole life. His head was ringing and he knew the creature was still walking around, waiting for a time to complete his masterpiece. The smell of blood was stronger than ever, and his parents hollow stares into his eyes made him want to cry, but he couldn't. Because then the monster would make him into a part of his art”, he began, before being cut off.

“What's this about art? That's fucking gay”, he heard someone say (you get one guess), but Dave sighed before continuing to tell the story.

“You may be wondering what had happened. Well you see, the little boy had woken up in the middle of the night, feeling pretty uneasy, like something was outside of his house, so he got out of the bed and carefully looked out of his window, seeing a shape in the distance, along with a darker puddle in the snow. He gulped and ran to his bed, hiding under his covers as the scaredy cat he was, but soon he heard the sound of the metal door to his house opening, and soon two pair of screams. He carefully opened one eye and pretended to be asleep as the footsteps came closer, and as the door slowly opened he saw it. It was a humanoid creature, completely white filled with blood, with two black hollow eyes and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. Over six feet tall and walking on all four, with long claws at the end of it's hands. But that wasn't the scariest part, it was that it was carrying things on his back. Two things to be exact. The boy’s parents. The creature slowly wakes closer and closer, putting down the dead parents, mouths opened like in mid scream, blood everywhere, and placed them at the side of the bed, so that the boy saw their hollow, empty eyes. Like if they were staring at him. He wanted to cry, but he had to pretend to be asleep, he would die anyway but he was too scared to run, so what could he do? Maybe the monster wanted awake victims? Maybe it would disappear if he could pretend to be asleep until the sunset. He surely hoped, but that wasn't all. The monster walked up to a wall, and put one of his hands in one of the many blood puddles, before making a… drawing? It was some sort of circle, with a five pointer star inside of it, it was blood art, and he realized dead humans may also be part of his morbid masterpiece. But the monster didn't stop, but started to… write on the wall. He was too scared to look at the writing, so he just closed his eyes, and after a while he heard the sounds of the monsters feat, bow he was waiting under his bed, ready to attack any moment, soon the boy would join his parents. Well he would die anyway, no matter if he was brace or scare, so at least he wanted to see what the message said before it was too late. And as he read it, he froze. “I know that you’re awake…””.

Dave finished the story and saw countless of people cradling each other in their arms, shaking as he finished the story, and he was pleased with the result (thank you Creepypasta wiki). Even the counselors looked a bit freaked out, so there probably wouldn't be another story that night. Especially Ashton looked freaked out of this world (so freaked out like that old “you’ll shit bricks” meme), so he gulped before trying to get everyone's attention.

“Okay, after all those scary stories let's do one more thing before going to bed, to get our minds of those stories. Man Dave that was scary, like really scary. And I thought your dog story was scary”.

Amateur, Dave thought as he rolled his eyes, not that anyone saw it but still.

Ashton pulled out a guitar from nowhere (so where did he have it? Like a guitar is way too big to fit in a pocket. This shit was scarier than the lame ghost stories).

“Let's sing a camp song!”, he said, smiling at the campers, and Dave heard Karkat let out a sigh before his loud voice was the only thing he heard..

“I swear if you sing the Camp Camp intro but replace Campbell with Haven then I'll make Rooster Teeth sue you for copyright complaints”.

Ashton slowly put away the guitar, and everyone laughed at the action. The students who showed that series to the counselor in the first place would pay, it was a bit annoying now that he tried to turn this camp into the weirdass camp of the cartoon (the reason Dave never went to the bonfire except for being lazy, and a spinoff the author might write about in the future). But the whole turning Ashton to a Camp Camp nerd was a story for another day (like when the author does a spinoff). To be honest Dave didn't wanna know all the details.

He took few more s’mores and let out a yawn, he was ready to go to bed, so he stood up, and John followed him.

Soon they were back on the cabin, they changed and now they had a night's sleep in front of them.

Before John climbed up to the top bunk to sleep, he gave Dave a short sweet kiss on the lips, which Dave returned with another kiss few seconds later, followed by a shy “goodnight” as both boys turned into a bright red color.

Dave fell asleep with a smile on his face.


	51. Sweet Goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s here now. The grand finale of this fic. It’s been a ride writing this, and it feels weird that’s it’s ending, but I’m a good way. I hope you all have enjoyed my fic and that it may have given you some smiles or laughs.

Chapter 51: Sweet Goodbyes.

Day 28 out of 28 of camp / Last day of camp.

  
Dave smiled as all the campers were standing at the flagpole near the entrance to the camp, awaiting their families to come and pick them up and all their suitcases.

It was still quiet early, and only a few campers had left, but the numbers slowly decreased once in awhile. Though his Bro usually isn't on time, he actually was afraid he would arrive before Dave had enough strength to say goodbye to John. So please bro, be a bit late like usual.

As he looked around campers gave each other hugs, before jumping into the cars or mini vans of their parents, and soon disappeared as the cars rolled out of the camp, and into the quit forest road that would take them to the interstate after a few miles, so that they then could precede to the big cities of their living.

The first of their gang to go was Karkat. The ginger boy got picked up by what looked like an older clone of him, with an equally huge amount of ginger hair on the top of his hair. He wore a blood red turtleneck in contrast to Karkat’s night black one and he had that huge arrogant look on his face as he looked down at his short little brother as he also fiddled with his small silver necklace in the shape of the cancer zodiac.

“Karkat, I don't have all day little brother. I've got to go to an essay… I mean conversation at a friend of mine later and talk about all sorts of things like triggers. Oh none of your friends are triggered by the world trigger right? If so I'm deeply sorry, I as a cisblooded (what does that mean? What does being cis has to do with blood?) redblood (everyone has red blood?) I do have a special understanding but not everyone is as much aware of triggers that I am. Oh sorry if that sentence triggered an inferiority complex, it was not my intention. You could all join my lecture if you feel like you need to be as well read on triggers like me”.

Silence.

What the actual fuck was that?

That guy gotta have at least one screw loose somewhere.

Dave saw Karkat letting out a high sigh.

“So that's Kankri alright”, he said, frowning a bit. “Well goodbye you fuckfaces”.

He gave Jade a peck on the cheek, and his waved at the rest of them before jumping into the small car with the plate “Knkrmble” (Kankri Mobile?) as it drew away into the distance.

Well no Dave understood what Karkat meant when he talked about his older brother in the way he did. That sounded so confusing.

There was silence between the group, and Felix tried to get out of Dave’s arms, and soon he had somehow gotten up to his head, using it as a nest. The others all let out huge laughs.

They small talked and just played with Felix for a few minutes, until it was time for another one of the gang to leave. Jade.

She had called a taxi, that would take her to the airport where she then would skydive down to her island (Dave had asked for her to film it, it sounded so fucking cool to skydive down to your home. But how would all her belonging reach the ground? Would they get a little parachute too? And who would activate it?).

The taxi driver was pretty impatient, so she just gave everyone a hug, smiling at them before she jumped into the taxi with all her belongings (poor driver that had to try and fit all those bags with markers in the back of the car), and then disappeared in the distance.

Now they were down yet another member in their small gang.

It felt so weird that neither Jade or Karkat was here anymore, and soon all the gang would be going to different places to go back to their own lives. Oh how Dave had waited for this day, but now when it had come, he wasn't so sure anymore. He had gotten used to camp, and leaving felt a bit… off to say the least.

So to use the time correctly, all gave each other hugs now when they had the chance. And that was pretty good, because soon another car arrived, a tall long haired women with makeup and several tattoos over her body and countless of piercings went out of the driver seat. On the passenger seat was a woman with blond hair, just smiling while… having a martini in her hand and a black cat in her lap?

“Hey Kanaya”, the woman said. “Time to go. Rose is also coming along, Roxy called and asked if we could drive together and all, since well she drank a little and didn't wanna cause an accident on the road”.

Both young girls nodded as Rose’s mother opened the car window, and smiled as she waved.

“Hey Rosie! How was your summer sweetie? Jaspers’ missed you”.

“Good!”, she shouted before she took Kanaya’s hand in her own, before both of them jumped into the back of the car. And soon they were also gone.

Okay Dave had heard Rose’s mother was drunk pretty often, but atleast she really was that kind happy drunk Rose always said she was. And she even called Kanaya’s sister (Porrim was it?) to ask if she could drive because she didn't wanna be in an accident.

That's actually… kinda responsible.

So as the girls had left, John and Dave were the only ones left at camp, so they both sat down in the dirty, using the time to smalltalk as they played with the cat.

“So what are you gonna do the rest of the summer?”.

“Probably play video games, and maybe read a bit. Prepare for the next semester”.

“Yeah, that's pretty good or high school will flip you off. You will play Overwatch with me right?”.

“Of course I will”.

“So what more will you do than video games and reading? I know I'm gonna practice with my turntable. And teach my lil shit aka my cat some manners”, he said, pointing at Felix.

“Don't really know. Dad is gonna teach me how to bake, so that's a thing”.

“Well sure, just don't turn into a baking monster okay”.

“No need to worry. No one is into baking as much as he is. It's practically a religion for him”.

“You don't say? Baking with Dad Egbert, the new religion”.

Both let out high pitched laughs.

“Atleast I won't starve. I will know how to bake every kind of dessert”, John said, smiling.

“Yeah, because eating only cake is soooo healthy”.

“Says the one who survived these weeks on chips and energy drinks”.

“Well played there mr Egbert”,

“Well player yourself”.

“Well atleast its better played than my bro. He fucking made my cat a living Pewdiepie reference”.

“But he looks like a Felix”.

“Not you too”.

Some time passed as the sun stood high up in the sky, as even more people disappeared. Now there were only a good twenty of campers left. So it naturally was time.

A rented Volvo drew into the parking lot, and out came an old man with a white costume, a pipe in his mouth and a white fedora on the top of his head.

“Dad!”, John shouted and ran up to him, giving him a hug.

“Hello John. How was camp?”, he asked, giving him that trademarked fatherly smile just dad's could give.

“It was amazing”, he said, before gesturing to Dave. “This is Dave by the way”.

“Oh so you’re the young lad that stole my little boy’s heart. Pleasure to meet you. I’ve got a cake in the backseat for you, you can see it as a “welcome to the family” gift of sorts. You like strawberry right?”.

Dave gave mr Egbert a nod, and before he knew it he was holding a gigantic red velvet cake topped with strawberries in his arms.

“Thanks so much, there wasn't really a need, you wouldn’t have needed to bake a cake just for me and all”.

Silence.

“Eat. The. Cake”.

What.

“Okay sure, if looks tasty”, Dave said, before taking a strawberry and putting it in his mouth. So this is what John meant by forcing people to eat his baking.

Well he wasn't complaining since it really was a good cake. Kudos to mr Egbert!

After a few more bites and a pair of dirty hands later, he carefully put the cake down (on a plate) so that he could shake mr Egbert’s hands.

“I must say, my little John here have told me so much about you”, he said, and next second John was flaming red.

“Dad”.

“Oh?”, he asked as he smirked. “Am I embarrassing you in front of your first boyfriend?”.

Now Dave also became a bit red, but soon smalltalk began and the conversation turned a lot more casual as time passed. The Egberts plane to New York didn’t leave until the evening, and they didn’t wanna leave Dave alone until his Bro came, so he had some great company as they all sat down on the ground and ate the cake.

A few more minutes passed, and then Bro’s truck drew into the camp, and he soon jumped out of the front seat, casually waving.

“Sup lil Bro! I’ll fix your bags and then we can talk a bit”.

Dave watched as his brother packed his bags into the back and then also approached the small group.

First thing he did was to shake hand with John.

“Hi, it’s me Dirk, Dave’s older Bro, but you probably remember me from the FaceTime”, he said, and the black haired boy nodded at his future brother in law (not that they knew about that at the time, the author just likes to give hints for a possible sequel).

“Yeah, I’m John. Nice to meet you in person”.

“Honor is on me, after all, you are dating my brother”.

He then turned towards mr Egbert.

“I’m Dirk Strider, Dave’s older brother”.

“Dadryl Egbert” (his full name was DADryl???)

The two adults began casually talking, so Dave carefully took John’s hand in his, cherishing the moment.

But all things had to end, and soon Bro sat in the car with a purring Felix in his lap (Felix sure liked Bro), waiting for Dave, while the Egberts were gonna walk to their car.

“I hope you can come visit us during fall break Dave”, Dadryl said and Dave nodded while smiling.

HONK! HONK!

That was the signal from Bro, it was time to go, so Dave carefully pressed his lips against John’s a last time, not caring about who saw them. They would leave anyway, and kids could think what they wanted to think. They didn’t care. This would be the last time they would see each other and kiss each other for a while, so they cherished it as their cheeks grew red.

And say they slowly parted and hearts still beat faster than humanly possible, they still held hands.

“I’m gonna miss you”.

“Me too. We better Skype often. Promise that”.

“Sure, if you turn on the camera, I wanna see your phase”.

“Of course I will, if I get to see you too”.

Their hands let go, but Dave just had to give John one last peck on the cheek, before both of them walked towards their cars.

The Striders were the first to leave, and Dave waved through the window as he saw his boyfriend disappear in the distance, but this was not the end, because he had just gotten a notification from pesterchum.

ectoBiologist: i miss you already.

He smiled as he replied. This romance was real, and it would continue no matter what. Because even if they weren’t on the same place, they would still love each other.


End file.
